KEITH ST CLARE         

VANGUARD MAGAZINE

In 1966, three years prior to Stonewall, Keith St Clare became Vanguard magazine.

Vanguard was for the untouchables pushed aside by gay assimilists and the heterosexuals they attempted to replicate. It was a forever open dialogue between the denied, forgotten, persecuted youth, drug addicts, transgenders, drag queens and all gay men and women.

Although Keith stopped publishing Vanguard in 1979, it is a living magazine. The content is controversial and remains true. It is a combination of every medium, a breath from every culture. Each issue is reality and optimism: art, poetry, interviews, resources and tragic news.

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Unlike almost all others at the time, Keith always published Vanguard under his real name. He also published his home address and phone number.

THE FOLLOWING POETRY WAS PUBLISHED ONCE IN 1967

THIS MAGAZINE

For me

This edition has been

The thing

Of a sense of survival,

Of faith in myself

And not love.

Man and woman may fight and kill

Or love or lie…

They have free will.

Holy God whose powers should

Be greater, aren't

Poor God can do only good.

​

Faint from assault

From the campaign still ahead

I’ve sat

And played like children

My fingers in sand

And with thoughts held by air.

We’re all right.

Sometimes we pass or glance,

Embarassed

Because we are down.

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Rather than

This summer sits still

On the clouded windows

Draperies within.

But fingers of an icy

Autumn are caught in

My hair.

The dedications

And love belong

To Will

And to our friend

Michael

In the east

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Did you know that sex

Is a river of boats

With bowls in them?

Homosex sex in place of sex of

Striking sticks between bone boxes

Or shoulder blade cheeks to love

Song of operated, plastic

Good touchings and making dougnuts

Of dildoes curing the marriage bite

Of a good double need, consolation

And not caring about wasted seeds

On babies.