Chapped Lap

Chapped Lap is Frank Moore's first slim book of poetry, featuring poetry from the 1990s and 2000 (published in 2000). Originally a xeroxed and stapled "chapbook", as the title suggests, this small collection is dense with pieces that have become classics. Not only did Frank perform these poems for years, but they were also often used in his interactive performances, read by audience members, and read by fellow poets, always adding new levels to the frame in which they were performed. Two of the pieces, "out of isolation" and "wrapping and rocking", were both written earlier - 1986. These deep evocative pieces are the roots of what would become decades of Frank's evolving performances. "out of isolation" pulled the audience into the universe of a character named Jim, institutionalized and severely disabled, exploring what happens when a nurse, Jane, is assigned to treat him. Frank described it as "a surreal erotic examination of an intimate relationship of need.""I only wish I was not the only soft fingers...I wish there was another soft fingers in my universe of the mat...someone to share in the bright colors and sweet sounds...someone I could laugh with, cry with, move with, share good feeling with...someone who would be with me on the mat, touch me not like touching my pillow, not like pulling things out of me or to make me different. But just because we are the only soft fingers in the universe of the mat.""wrapping and rocking" in performance gave people the direct experience of oneness and intimacy: "the two nude figures sit in / time and space. / one upon the other. / rocking together. / rocking in their cave. two magic figures / rocking together against time. / rocking back through time. / back and forth. mother rocking her baby. / rocking against sickness and tears. / rocking back into love and peace.""wrapping and rocking" is illustrated with great black and white performance photographs, and Chapped Lap is further illustrated with liquid erotic pen & ink drawings by LaBash, a few paintings by Moore, and other photographs.The poems in this first collection reflect a full spectrum of Moore's passions: exploring and expanding freedom, intimacy and deep human connection beyond the accepted limits, sex and love, play and passion, and exploding the censoring concepts and taboos that fragment and isolate us from each other, from ourselves and from unlimited possibilities. His tribute poems to his mom, Connie, to a student, and to a fellow artist take us deep through the personal into the essence of being human together. And poems like "their cuddling cocoon" and "rings of orgasms" explore the "smallness" of erotic human surrender and intimacy, while opening into the universal "heart of the universe".But it is poems such as "i came to play", "tortures", "art is a bitch" and "mutation is evolution" that have become "signature" pieces for Moore's lusty way of looking at life, living life, enjoying life, his deep and uncompromising vision of human liberation, and his seeing art/life as a passion, an addiction ... about surrendering and following. A lot loaded into a sexy small package!Published by Inter-Relations.