Blueberry Lemonade*
Matt Margo
Bottlecap Press
2015
45 pp
$10.00
Reviewed by Clara B. Jones
The New York School poet, Alice Notley,
one said, “I am alone, and that seems to make my personhood more
urgent.” Poet and Editor (Zoomoozophone Review), Matt Margo,
might say something similar. I feel that I know Matt well...though I
don't. We follow each other on Facebook, I have published a few poems
in his journal, and we have occasionally interacted electronically. I
like Margo's poetry, even though some of it is so raw that it kicks
me out of my safety bubble, and the poet's bravery, clarity, and
insight never cease to amaze me. Matt (hereafter, the “poet,” the
“author,” or “they”) describes themselves as “trans-feminine”
and “non-binary,” regarding their gender as “feminine.” Most
of the poems in this collection address the author's complex
emotional life, including, their psychic struggles. A recent,
professional grade, image of themselves posted to Facebook was
superimposed with the text, “Saint Margo of Perpetual Anxiety,”
and, indeed, their poems' substance locates the author squarely in
the tradition of Sylvia Plath and Poetry of Angst.
Bottlecap Press' statement describing
the book says that it is about “reading poetry, listening to Gucci
Mane, missing everyone, longing for love, regretting the past,
fearing the future, wanting to die, wanting to live, being sad, and
trying to overcome being sad.” I would, also, say that the book is
about loss and reinvention of self. Some poets, Thomas Lux, for
example, might view the present collection as an example of the “coming of age”
sub-genre because of Margo's detailed, sometimes, tortuously
self-scrutinizing, documentation of their struggles with identity and
place as well as their conflicts. Blueberry Lemonade, of
course, is a mixture of sour and sweet, colored blue [sic],
and the volume's cover reinforces these ideas by displaying a tower
of yellow building blocks, representing, perhaps, the poet's upward
climb to wholeness or, even, the skyscraper the author refers to in
one haiku...
“i dream of being
a skyscraper in the midst
of a hurricane”
It would trivialize the emotional
currency of Margo's feelings to interpret “skyscraper” as a
Phallic Symbol, and the author makes few direct references to
physical expressions of affection.
As they suggest, Margo has been
influenced by James Joyce's modernist style of “psychological
realism,” and the poems' styles are reminiscent, also, of Virginia
Woolf who described their writing as “interior monologue.” Some
poems in Blueberry Lemonade reminded me of Michael C.
Peterson's poem, “Repeater,” for instance, Margo's line, “you
pull the trigger on a plastic toy gun that you have put into your/
mouth.” Many of the author's poems are dark, bordering, in my
opinion, on nihilism and, less frequently, on self-pity (see the
poems, “a fun activity for a sunday afternoon;” “do-it-yourself
make-a-wish foundation;” “a garbage bag stuffed with internal
organs;” “they told me i could be anything i wanted to be, so i
killed myself;” and, the Haiku,“i am so sorry/ please forgive me.
i am a/ monster. i hate it.”). This is a collection of radical,
very serious poetry whose gravity is relieved somewhat by the poet's
obvious love for music, their respect for other experimental poets
(e.g., Steve Roggenbuck), and their clear understanding that, though
self-concept may be fractured and complex, it exists in a larger
community and a broader narrative (“in the end though, i just want
people to participate/ in any way possible;” “we all were formed
from/ dead suns & there is something/ beautiful in that”). Indeed, in addition to being a Poet of Angst, Margo can be viewed as
a Poet of Identity whose strong images communicate that he has not
given up (“the comedians & magicians/come together in search of
footprints”; “bliss is not fixed in passing canisters”).
Surely, for this poet, The Sublime exists though it cannot be
contained.
While I am sympathetic with Formalism
and with academic Poetry, including, theory and criticism, I think
there is a degree of elitism among some in that community who have
erected standards so rigid that they function as barriers to success,
in effect, making “Others” of poets who privilege language,
authenticity, present experience, and meaning. For example, one can
only infer from Helen Vendler's critiques of Adrienne Rich's poetry
after they professed their lesbianism and became outspokenly
political as well as activist, that Vendler found Rich's poetry
interesting (Vendler likes Rich's “themes”) but disappointing
(“failed promise”, is Vendler's term). Without ever going on the
personal attack, Vendler (very politely) dismisses Rich's work after
~1973, as “politics” and “sociology.” Is Vendler saying that
Rich's mid- to late-career work is not Poetry or not good Poetry?
And, what about Margo's writing that does not so much directly
address politics or society but, rather, his own interior landscape.
Would Vendler say that Margo is writing psychology rather than
Poetry? Would Thomas Lux, one of my favorite poets who believes that
a natural progression is for poets to move away from writing about
“self,” consider Margo's poetry immature?
Certainly, years before Emily
Dickinson, mainstream poets have held that enduring Poetry (poetry
for “all time”) is written “slant” rather than in a
straightforward, direct, and literal manner. Yet, Poetic Realism has
been a respected sub-genre of The Canon since writers rebelled
against Romanticism in the late 19th Century and was
clearly understood to be political—to represent a revolt against
aristocratic norms. Is it possible, or, useful, to view the
relatively recent wave of mostly young, counter-normative poets as,
perhaps, Neo-Realists? Are these underrepresented (e.g., feminist,
lesbiaan, gay, activist, gender-non-conforming, racially/ethnically
minority, marginalized) poets producing a New Poetics, even, a New Aesthetics? Are
Neo-Realist poets situated with the revolutionary French and Russian
writers who expressed (personal, political, and social) life as it
was instead of promoting Romanticism and Idealism?
Having said that, Rich and many other
oppositional poets (e.g., Caseyrenée
Lopez) appear to be Utopian (romantic? Idealistic?) in their
philosophy, social models, and politics, a tendency that may be
inconsistent with Realism. Surely, there is much material, context,
and intersectionality to be evaluated in an attempt to give the new
wave of outspoken poets, and their predecessors, an honored and
deserved position in the Poetry community. A good place to begin to
understand what these poets are about is to meet them on their own
terms in journals such as Yellow Chair Review and
Zoomoozophone Review in order to understand poets such as Matt
Margo who is taking significant risks to honor their Truth. Finally,
many of the lines (“you say 'we could eat at taco bell again'”;
“the ice cream truck drives around until it no longer exists”)
and poems (“washington, lincoln, lafayette;” “blessa”) in
Blueberry Lemonade are stunning, deserving to be read over
and over again. Indeed, this collection places Margo among the best
young poets writing experimentally today.
*Originally published in Yellow Chair Review, 2015 [text corrected & slightly revised]
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