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Emerald Pickard

Lisa Orta

English 123

20 May 2017

The Quilted Life: Chronicles of a Mans Love

What is the definition of the genre we call "poetry? The definition of the said genre is,

Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In fact,

poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm with each lines and syllables. It is

further subdivided into different genres such an epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic, and

lyric.Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In

fact, poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm with each lines and syllables. It is

further subdivided into different genres such an epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic, and

lyric.

In regards to Gil Cuadros, and his Quilt Series poems, his poem DOA from his book

City Lights, I have concerns personally because I have a brother who is gay and who lives with

someone he loves. I always worry about him getting sick and that the whole scenario that

played out in the set of Quilt poems would play out for my brother or his boyfriend. Im

extremely close to my brother, and as his older sister, I feel the need and desire to protect him

from anything harmful for him even if that means keeping his love life in mind and the
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possible outcomes of it after a few months to a few years. But my brother has always said that

hes been careful and he knows of the dangers. I have no choice then to love him as he is,

consider that hes a full-grown adult and trust the head he has upon his shoulders. But that

outcome is still there, in the back of my mind. The poems just kind of brought the fears of it

back to the surface. If the poem showed us that it happened in like the seventies, then I must

keep in mind, even decades later, that it happens now.

The poem DOA is dead on. It did not pull any punches when it came to

discussing the relationship to the two homosexual men and peoples responses to that fact. It

showed us just how deep the relationship went, even Caudros discussing suicide at one point in

the series. Though he didnt take his life when John was dead, you can feel his pain and sorrow

as his inflicted pain upon his own body by hitting his head against the wall, just to feel

something besides the pain of a broken heart. His shattered dream of them living out their

days together, becoming long time lovers and sweet old men was gone. It was strange however

when he (Cuadros) was finally seen as a grieving man when John did finally pass, as if John

was someone they couldnt look past because he was still alive but dying of AIDS, the disease

at that time that screamed to others he was a homosexual and therefore less than because

doctors and nurses were both dealing with a type of love connected to a debilitating disease

they could not, would not understand. In the time this took place, the early 80s, it wasnt even

legal to be a guy man. The courts appealed that there was no fundamental right to be gay.
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Like the nurses, they didnt know how this love was created, could exist, and somehow in the

end, kill a man just because his ability to love was different than their own. But because this

physical love was connected to something that causes fatalities, people either intentionally or

not, hated these men for being carriers of something they themselves could not control. The

hate of the gay man at that time was their only defense to their logical (though flawed)

explanation of AIDS.

When reading DOA my opinions were challenged, as I support this type of

relationship. Not just because my brother is gay, but because love is a mysterious thing

and you cant really help who you fall in love with when the time comes. It challenged

my end outcome of these relationships, as Im always hoping to myself that this will not

happen. Cuadros couldnt bear to think of someone that he loved, was going through

that, but the poem DOA placed it in front of my eyes again - that this can, and will

happen, least until they find a cure. The closest we have come of a cure for AIDS is in

2011, a man named Timothy Ray Brown by means of bone marrow transplant that have

T -cells resistant to the virus. Though this is used to treat leukemia, it made serious

progress towards an actual working cure for AIDS. I remember such lines as I wanted

to kiss him but Id be afraid of what Id taste. Because the Cuadros is referring to John

as he is, a dead body. I had this ideal picture in my head before this poem, that John was

untouchable, and that he could love anyone he came close to, and he would never come
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to harm. But again, this harsh poem, and the reality of it came crashing into my head

and just brought it all down. This poem only moved me emotionally, with lines such as

The weight of his hand slipped from mine. It emotionally opened my eyes to a reality

that still exists for gay men.

This poem addresses Cuadros love for John and his concern for him. It addresses in the

world view that these men should be allowed to love anyone they like, and even get married if

they want to, even though every time that comes up people must say their piece that this is

wrong and something like it goes against the Bible or something like that. I worry about the

solidity of this relationship, and many others like it, because of this. There are some out there,

what you would call those God is Love type people, and though some have stated that

support people like John and Cuadros, Ive caught them from time to time speaking of sodomy

and how it goes against God. Of course, this is used to boost their image of themselves, to show

that theyre conservative men and women, usually around an election of a person of power.

Because theyre elected to run a state or have a congressional seat, they feel that they must

speak for the people because there are still so many out there that dont understand the plight

and struggle of the gay, lesbian, transgender, or questioning community. This poem opened my

eyes again to the plight of gay men over the concern of Gods love You see, the idea is

simple: God loves everyone. Like given the choice to love God or not, he also gave us the

choice to live our lives as we see fit and because He made that situation, He cannot hate some
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of the outcomes more than others. God cannot be biased, He can only love because He is love.

This entire series refers to God from the Kiss of Judas (Also known as Betrayal of Christ, in

Kilgallen 271.) to the wrap that was wrapped around Jesus prior to his resurrection. (Known

historically as The shroud of Turin, a religious date debate from 1390 to Present time.) It shows

that everyone has a certain belief about God, and the afterlife, no matter the sexual orientation.

This poem is a work of art addressing important things to people in a poetic form. This

poem addresses things that are important to me with such lines as, I started to tell him Im

sorry I wasnt here. Im sorry it wasnt me. They address important things I care about, such as

my brother and this topic with lines such as, Still, he felt more like meat than flesh. As that

would happen to this body if God forbid, the worst happens. But even when dead, like John in

the poem, he was a person first, a man who had a life and love he thrived in, he wasnt just a

pound of flesh. He became one when his soul left his body and in a harsh irony seemed more

human as a dead man. Much as Id like to believe it, they are still people out there that believe

this while gay men are still alive. It is important I think to the community with such lines as

And his grandfathers watch, the one his family wants back. Which address people aloofness

to this type of person. How people cant handle when their children come out and automatically

label them a Pariah, a worthless human being not worth loving because of their capability to

love. This poem was artistic is displaying their love to one another through this quilt of

powerful poems that were interlinked.

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I felt a bit defensive about this poem because it wasnt until this poem the narrator was

treated most humanly by this poem, DOA. Before that the narrator wasnt approached or

even touched until John died and their relationship with eternally severed by death. I was angry

for the fact that they both were less than human until John physically died, as if were some sort

of obstacle people had to get by so they didnt have to touch or even communicate with him.

John and the narrator was still people, how can the nurses not see that even as John was dying?

It really shows the stigma of people. It shows how they can go from gray to black on the

opinion of being Gay or anything like that. While they live, there are those out there are those

out there that question the choices of this men, and end up usually asking them how theyre

going to explain themselves to God when they pass on, as John did. But then, once death does

occur, the people who ask these same questions go into some sort of sympathy mode, and

mourn with the existent partner because their significant other has passed on. Though its gotten

a lot better over the recent years, ( say formation of the LGBT and their rights in the United

States) you can still see this plainly being done in the Quilt poem series: from DOA.
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Works Cited

Bible Oddessy The Kiss of Judas. N.p., n.d. Web

<http://www.bibleodyssey.com/en/tools/browse-a-z.aspx>.
Clews, Collin. "A Pivotal Era in LGBT History?" Gay in the 80s. N.p., n.d. Web.

28 Feb. 2017. <http://www.gayinthe80s.com/>.

Cairns, Gus. "Issue 216: Final Edition - Progress towards an HIV Cure." HIV &

AIDS Information :: Issue 216:

Cuadros, Gil. City of God. San Francisco: City, 1994. N. pag. Print.Final

Edition. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017. <http://www.aidsmap.com/Progress-

towards-an-HIV-cure/page/2821420/>.
Genre - Examples and Definition of Genre - LiteraryDevices.net

https://literarydevices.net/genre
"LGBT Rights in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2017.

Web. 28 Feb. 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_United_States>.
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"Shroud of Turin." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Feb. 2017. Web. 28 Feb.

2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin#History>.