I first stayd at Canyon Club in 2013. on a visit the following year I found a black Bike jockstrap there. I'm wearing it now.
I'm wearing it because the gay clothing optional resort a block away from the Poet's Bench is closing. word is that the new owners will refurbish it but also degay it. this follows the shutting down of so many gay places of fable & merriment. soon young gays won't know what clothing optional resorts were. maybe gay bars too. thank you internet.
yes the physical quality of the place was in decline but it has many stories to tell.
my dear friend Bob took a great photo there of 2 naked men walking side by side toward the maze. not so long after a smidgen of his ashes were scatterd in that maze. & a sprig of the shrub above those ashes is now in my piece "box of little bags." when I did my piece "Bob Loves Lucy" I put one of the stamps in a locker one passes to get to the maze.
Canyon Club makes several appearances in Alex in Movieland. & this jockstrap shows up in several poems. one of them I read (with the jock hanging beside me) in Steven Reigns' "Subversive Ink" video in 2020. I also made a little film of me reading a poem abt the maze while walking in the maze (available on You Tube).
in my last Santa Fe photo shoot JC Gonzo shot me both in & out of the jockstrap. also a circle of cord from the resort now rests in my piece "Billy's Chest."
strangely while writing this I sippd coffee from a random mug. as if it were meant to happen I realizd I unknowingly reachd for a mug I bought at another gay clothing optional resort -- Elysium in Fort Lauderdale. out of curiosity I goggld it & shockingly discoverd that it too recently shutterd.
so as the doors of Canyon Club close I present this as a way of keeping its memory alive for future generations. & tonite I'll slip out of this jockstrap hoping it still has some adventures ahead.
from "Billy's Chest." see above photo for reference.
cover of my coloring book. orange building on the left is Canyon Club.
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