Review of Sleeping Things by Holly Iglesias (Clara B. Jones)

Sleeping Things

Holly Iglesias

2018

Press53

$14.95

83 pp

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones*

Holly Iglesias is a prose poet, a critic, a translator (Spanish), an educator specializing in documentary and archival poetry, a feminist, a lesbian, a traveler, a recipient of fellowships and awards, as well as, a member of the Cuban diaspora in the United States. As her poems attest, she has a strong sense of memory and place, in addition to, an abiding concern for the status and welfare of children and women. Sleeping Things (2018), her third full-length collection, includes poems highlighting her thesis, advanced in her critical essay, Boxing Inside The Box (Quale Press, 2004), that the prose poem, a form of ancient origin, symbolizes the constraints borne by women [all oppressed groups?] boxed into bedrooms, kitchens, churches, bodies—literally, figuratively, and psychologically: “Oh, victim soul, don't bite back. Instead, sink deeper/and deeper into the bed, into sheets thin as pity, pillows/flattened by the weight of piety.” (p 18, Sleeping Things); “Mother is the superior of our kitchen, her habit an/ apron.” (p 20). I first met Iglesias after a reading in a bar, Crow & Quill, in Asheville, NC (p 69), filled with a group of her dedicated admirers, with whom I soon identified. In past, I have reviewed a few of the author's books and am pleased to have the opportunity to do so again.

Sleeping Things, a volume in three parts, is titled and introduced by Federico García Lorca's words, a poet referenced elsewhere in Iglesias' writings. Clearly, she has been influenced by Lorca's Surrealism (“automatism,” unconscious processes: “ A Child's Book of Knowledge...”, pp 14-15, 21; “Remote Control”, p. 26) and his “deep song” form (“The body sojourns but briefly in the material world...”, p 4; “The grandeur of possibilities soothed/my shame. Should I stand shoeless for days in Alpine/snow...?”, p 24). Part I of Iglesias' new, handsomely crafted and illustrated, book, presents poems with multiple layers of significance, demonstrating the ways in which her childhood experiences, musings, and recollections relate to historical and current events documenting the author's routes to an awakening of socio-political consciousness: “We were a system, a sociology, a discipline of black/and white, its strictures softened by Gregorian chant/and myrrh, by the nuns pacing left and right [sic] as they/tapped the maps with a flourish—Holy Roman Empire,/Barbarian Invasions, Counter-Reformation.” (p 7). The poet's vivid historical, psychological, spiritual, and metaphorical tapestries reveal her ongoing interest in causal, situational, interconnected, as well as, multi-level memory, time, place, relationships, and identity inherent to personal, local, regional, national, and international domains (see, for example, “Hit Parade”, p 27).

Part II of Sleeping Things reprints poems from her chapbook, Fruta Bomba [tr. Papaya or female genitalia; Making Her Mark Press, 2015]. Although, Iglesias may be viewed as a “political” writer, these poems, like others throughout the book, demonstrate her lyrical, intimate style transcending sociology, literalness, and didacticism: “No words precede the reef, none follow. Only sea fans,/brain coral, clouds above the surface. Glint of sun, of/barracuda and baitfish in flight, the Gulf Stream/sweeping by, squeezing between Florida and Cuba....” (p 31). Iglesias often refers to events in Cuba, Miami, and St. Louis, especially, the physical and emotional distances between these places, as well as, other locations. Her poems about tropical areas authentically reflect their sensuousness—color- passion-soul (components of Lorca's duende), exoticism, mystery, and, sometimes, the potential for violence (“The boy, crying, clutches the neck of his rescuer as a/federal agent in riot gear yanks him away.” (p 44). Though Iglesias has clearly renounced the [optimistic] Modernism characteristic of José Martí and Lorca, the poems in Sleeping Things are not depressing or nihilistic. They reflect, rather, an awareness of the complexities and contradictions of the post-World War II political landscape, refusing to advance unifying solutions, as the Modernists did (e.g., Science, Psychoanalysis, Communism). Nonetheless, each section of this book demonstrates that Iglesias' compositions are part of the experimental tradition, particularly, in their forms (e.g., pp 14-15, 17, 21, 42, 45, 56).

Part III is, in my opinion, the strongest section of the book, in part, because it highlights Iglesias' strengths with words—double-meanings, word-parings, complete sentences, as well as, whole poems. Many titles, for example, are playful conceits (e.g., “Lobal Warfare,” “Uncivil War...,” “The Game of Crones”). Also, my favorite line in the volume occurs in Part III (p 60): “It was still life [sic] after she'd gone—hair in the brush,/scented talc, the impress [sic] of her younger self in the/cushions of the couch.” Further, the most lyrical, metaphorical, and imagistic poems can be found in this part: “The first time I saw the Mississippi from the air,/I knew my place, and I knew that home was a sinuous/ribbon lacing east to west, past to future, bondage to/possibility, appearing and disappearing like a snake in/new-mown hay as the sun flashed on its surface.” (p 51). In my experience, music and meter, Formalist criteria, do not often characterize contemporary prose poems; yet, Iglesias achieves these heights over and over again. Sleeping Things contains some of the most beautiful prose poems I have ever read.

Reflecting upon Iglesias' body of work leads me to recall Louise Bogan's line: “Women have no wilderness in them; they are provident, instead.” I wonder whether Bogan and Iglesias, are underestimating women and other oppressed or suppressed groups—their capacities for change, transformation, as well as, agency? Having said that, I think the reader will agree that many of the compositions in Sleeping Things are noteworthy, deserving a wide audience. Among feminist poets writing today, Holly Iglesias is one of my favorites, and, if her canon were larger, she would certainly deserve critical attention relative to Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, and Elizabeth Bishop. Iglesias' compositions are mature examples of the prose poem sub-genre, and, at their best, the writings stun in their ability to combine “color” with theme (additional Formalist criteria). I have learned a lot about style and metaphor from studying Iglesias' project, and I am always left hungry for more after reading her books. Absorbing Sleeping Things was a pleasure to experience, and I highly recommend this significant collection to anyone interested in compelling innovative literature.

*Published in PANK Magazine Blog, January 2019, online

Review of The Word Factory by Mark Young (Clara B. Jones)

The Word Factory: a miscellany

Mark Young

2018

gradient books (Finland)

Available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/gradientbooks

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones taking a journey on the path of experimental book reviewing*...

“There exists no science of word creation” Velimir Khlebnikov

Author: Mark Young is an internationally recognized writer and publisher of the poetry journal, Otoliths, who has produced dozens of books and has been featured in jacket2 and by the Poetry Foundation. He lives in Australia.

What is The Word Factory about? From the author: “A strange mix, a miscellany as the subtitle says. Some pieces written during & about the George W. Bush presidency; the Allegrezza translations; prose works that investigate the landscape where the writing takes place; poems that don't fit elsewhere. All put together to try & hold up a night sky, to give it faint stars & distant constellations.”

Formal structure:

Arrangement: various textual forms in four parts—

1. “Bush Tucker”: “Because he had experienced neither, President Bush confused the word/poetry and poverty./He said:/Many in our country do not know the pain of poetry, but we can listen/to those who do.” (p 16)
2. “some translations by Umberto Allegrezza”: “Alexander/came and Tyre fell; &/later on the Greeks,/rats gnawing away/at what was left.” (p 33)
3. “Odds and Sods”: “tomorrow/i begin my/studies to/become a/transplant surgeon/the day/after that/i take my/finals exam/it's a series/of multiple/choice/questions—/much easier/for the/tutors to/mark—” (p 53)
4. “The Word Factory”: “At 1.27 p.m. a directive comes down from Management. The remainder of/the afternoon will be spent putting together a new word, two words/actually, both without n, to build up stocks for the projected rush on them./I finish off my shift using my dots to complete the exclamation marks that/our Marketing people believe will be a much in demand accessory to/accompany Global Catastrophe.” (p 67)

Features: form (various textual forms); content/theme/subject (various); meter/rhyme (various, including, improvisational, free verse); style (playful, eclectic, innovative; stabilizing & destabilizing at the same time); technique (“defamiliarization”; “Art as device for making strange”: Viktor Shklovsky)

Poetic sub-genres: conventional (p 17); vispo (p 45); erasure (p 47); prose (p 50); mixed (p 51); list (p 63); flash fiction (p 82)

Theories behind text: Modernism, PoMo

Conclusion: Read this book if you want to know the mystery of a shooting star or of a treasure hunt through enchanted forests of entities both autonomous and whole embedded in real and imagined worlds. This noteworthy book is a happening. Go along for the ride. It is a unique and worthy experience.

*Published in The Curly Mind, 12/2018

Monetizing Poetry [this proposal is a (tentative) work/idea in progress] (Clara B. Jones)

To: Whom it may concern

From: Clara B. Jones*

Knowledge Worker

929 Bonifant Street, Apt. 512

Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA

Cell: (828) 279-4429

E-mail: foucault03@gmail.com

Re: Proposal to create a market for Poetry via the visual arts gallery network, as well as, to monetize and to create a market for Poetry comparable to the visual arts market intended, in part, to enhance poets' income from their creative work, to widen Poetry's influence and impact, as well as, to broaden the range of artforms represented by a given gallery.

Date: 12/16/2018 [revised, 1/14/19]

Visual arts as an industry: Much has been written about the national and international monetization and commodification of the visual arts in America created by the influence of buyers, sellers, 3^rd parties, such as, representatives, the media, galleries & museums, critics (academics and non-academics), artists and their agents, as well as, other entities. Visual arts networks, in aggregate, have become an industry driven by economic forces yielding the potential to “make or break” artists' careers, as well as, for the potential for individual artists to earn significant income and exposure from their creations.

Herein, I propose that...

...a given poet will, by contract, agree to print, frame, sign, date, and number a limited series of poems (1/1 to N/N) that will be professionally framed, represented by, and marketed by a given art gallery for a price agreed upon by gallery owner or representative. Mode of presentation of the printed, framed, signed, dated, and numbered poem would constitute a category of Radical Publishing. For example, to suggest a few conventions that could be employed, the poet might combine the poem with other visual art or features, such as, artwork, varied fonts, font sizes, and/or colors. Or, creating an object potentially of value to and attractive to gallery owners or their representatives, poets might be expected to collaborate with visual artists to create an object comparable to "text art," prints, engravings, woodcuts, and the like, the difference being that the text would be an original poem presented as a single work or as one copy in a limited series.

By contract beneficial to both entities, a given gallery would have exclusive rights to represent, to display, and to sell the poet's creation(s) and to market his/her/their printed, framed, signed, dated, and numbered poem which, in effect, would be characterized and treated as a work of visual art similar in sub-genres to text art, prints, engravings, woodcuts, and the like. Also, by contract, poet and gallery owner (or, representative) could agree upon series number (from 1/1 to n/N) and other pertinent details (e.g., price of artwork, advertising, duration of contract, handling of product after termination of contract, terms of copyright, etc.).

Consequences for the poetry community, its networks, and galleries: Clearly, no poet would be obligated to participate in the marketing strategy proposed herein. However, if the strategy is even marginally successful, advantages (stream of income, incentive for poetry journals to pay poets, increased status of Poetry among the Arts and in public) should obtain to poets using this strategy. Poems not under contract could be published in traditional ways. The gallery would be expected to benefit in ways comparable to what is gained by showing any other work of Art.

*Feedback is solicited about the clarity, desirability, and feasibility of this proposal, or, about any other matters of concern (see contact information above).

Review of Mammal Societies by Tim Clutton-Brock (Clara B. Jones)

Mammal Societies*

Tim Clutton-Brock

2016

Wiley-Blackwell (Oxford, UK)

744 pp

ISBN 97811119095323

“The key to the sociobiology of mammals is milk.” E.O. Wilson (1975)

Knowledge about group-living mammals may contribute to an understanding of vertebrate social evolution and the evolution of gregariousness in animals with generalized phenotypes. Compared to social insects and birds, the social biology of mammals is poorly known with the exception of ungulates, carnivores, and primates (3 of ~25 Orders). In 2011, Ladevèze et al. reported fossil evidence documenting mammalian gregariousness and its associated ecology from the basal Tertiary of Bolivia. These findings suggested that extinct, marsupial-like Pucadelphys andinus were group-living, probably exhibiting frequent interactions, strong sexual dimorphism, and male-male competition, as well as, polygyny. Based on the spatial and ecological settings of their specimens, these authors speculated that the species may have been cooperative breeders. In 2012, based on a phylogenetic analysis, Briga et al. showed that relatedness and allomaternal¹ care are positively correlated in Class Mammalia. These papers indicate that, though the population dispersion of most extant mammals is sexually segregated (“solitary”), group-living has a long history in these animals.

Tim Clutton-Brock (henceforth, “TC-B”) is a highly-regarded empiricist at the University of Cambridge (UK), recognized, particularly, for his field studies on primates, red deer, and meerkats. He is a prolific scientist with a knack for asking good questions and choosing animal models that have yielded flagship research. The author will be familiar to most animal behaviorists and behavioral ecologists as a specialist of cooperative breeding and evolutionary aspects of reproduction (e.g., female mating strategies, sexual selection). In the book under review, TC-B notes that his undergraduate training was in Anthropology and that he completed his doctorate under Robert Hinde, an animal behaviorist that Psychology typically claims as one of its own. I have been familiar with TC-B's work since the 1970s, and my personal favorites among his copious publications are his 1995 paper with Geoff Parker and the 2003 volume edited with R.M. Sibley & J. Hone. I am pleased to have the opportunity to review Mammal Societies, and, as a point of information, admit to having no “bones to pick” with its author. I have interacted with TC-B on several occasions, once face-to-face, and, more than once, via e-mail. He has always been generous and courteous to me. In this review, I do not intend to deconstruct, to question the book's authority, or to impose my biases. Instead, I hope to provide a context for its readers, particularly, mammalian social biologists, to decide on their own its scope and utility.

Previous books by JH Crook, “Griff” Ewer, J Eisenberg, EO Wilson, R Estes, D MacDonald, CB Jones, and others, have treated mammalian social biology to one degree or another. Mammal Societies, however, is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive literature review of the topic. The publisher's description of the volume states that it is intended for “behavioral ecologists, ecologists, and anthropologists,” and TC-B self-identifies as a “behavioral ecologist.” The book is, to all purposes, a literature review of selected Natural History reports emphasizing publications by his own laboratory, by primatologists, and from the Old World. Of an estimated 5,300 references cited in the book under review, only 64 [THIS NUMBER IS INCORRECT--corrected in next issue of ISBE Newsletter] derive from mainstream journals in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (N= 15 journals, including, Trends In Ecology and Evolution, American Naturalist, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Journal of Evolutionary Biology). While the Table of Contents presents a detailed outline of topics of interest to social biologists, there is little integration of technical reports with ecology and evolution. Furthermore, the sheer number of topics covered is so large that little space is devoted to most of them. To provide context, professors using Mammal Societies as a course textbook or reference work are strongly advised to acquaint their students early on with Wilson's (1975) treatment of the same topic (pp 456-574) presenting an explicitly articulated conceptual framework for mammalian social biology, including, trends, general and comparative features, an extensive glossary, as well as, case studies and summary tables, figures, and diagrams.

Chapter 1, “Social evolution,” omits definitions of terms (e.g., “aggregation,” “social”, “cooperation”), leading to obfuscation throughout the book, particularly, since there is no discussion of how to measure social traits (cooperation, altruism) and to discuss their pertinence to reproductive success. In this chapter, the author might have defined “Mammal” and should tell the reader why mammalian social biology is of import. The reader will want to understand possible trajectories to cooperation and altruism from aggregations and groups and how the (spatial and temporal) distribution of limiting resources favor or disfavor the evolution of mammalian sociality. Chapter 1 is, in great part, a selective account of the history of Animal Behavior combined with some mention of theoretical issues (e.g., Darwinism, competition, reciprocity, game theory). However, for rigorous discussions of verbal and quantitative theory in Behavioral Ecology, as well as, overviews of Methods and G x E interactions, readers are referred to Davies et al. (2012) and Westneat & Fox (2010).

Chapters 2-9 address topics related to features of female behavior, particularly, as they pertain to mating, maternal tendencies, and gregariousness. Focusing on females, their strategies, and their energetic requirements as the primary driver of group-living and patterns of male behavior and dispersion is fundamental to an understanding of mammal societies because fertilizeable females are usually a limiting resource for males and, subsequently, an ultimate determinant of male “fitness optima.” Though these and other important concepts are implicit in some of TC-B's discussions, explicit use of many principles inherent to Behavioral Ecology are unclear or lacking (e.g., integration of Hamilton's rule throughout chapters, acknowledgment of the many competing hypotheses in Ecology pertaining to dispersal or multiple-mating by females, use of optimality formulations). As an example from Chapter 5 (“Maternal care”), TC-B's treatment asserts, accurately, that mammalian females invest heavily in current offspring, but theory holds that, after parturition, female resources, above some critical minimum, are channeled into future reproduction and lifetime “fitness.”

Chapters 10-16 pertain to males, especially, mating strategies, relations with females, and paternal care. Characteristic of Mammal Societies as a whole, these chapters are literature reviews of mostly familiar Natural History papers and book chapters from the Animal Behavior literature, and few of the reports classifiable as Behavioral Ecology meet the standards of, say, Bradbury 1981. Life history evolution is addressed in this chapter without mentioning the importance of tradeoffs, the distinction between semelparity and iteroparity (“fast” and “slow” life history trajectories, respectively), and the role of mortality as a driver of life-history evolution (Stearns 2000). Chapter 17 reviews “Cooperative breeding,” one of TC-B's specializations, and Chapter 18 presents a discussion of “Sex differences” (without discussing classic theory). Throughout the book, the author impresses the reader with the centrality of sex, sexual competition, and mating—topics of import in TC-B's career, though one is surprised that more attention is not given to Sexual Selection. Chapters 19 and 20 address hominoids and hominids, including, modern humans, topics often missing or skimmed in other Animal Behavior texts.

TC-B presents at least one controversial formulation in Mammal Societies by asserting, with no supporting evidence or logical arguments, that no mammals are “eusocial”²—that the highest grade of sociality in mammals is “cooperative breeding.” This view is orthogonal to standard practice in Mammalian Social Biology whereby the social mole rats are typically classified as “primitively” eusocial. Technically, according to common usage, “cooperative breeders” might, as well, be classified “primitively” eusocial because of the presence of reproductive division of labor in the form of totipotent “helpers” (see Jones 2014). Mammal Societies highlights the need for practitioners of Natural History, Animal Behavior, and Behavioral Ecology to revisit topics such as standardization of terminology, advancement of the Hamiltonian Project, the roles of quantitative theory and modeling (in particular, agent-based modeling), field experiments, as well as, hypothesis-testing based on 1^st principles. The text will appeal to professors wanting a Natural History, mostly, non-quantitative, review allowing supplementary reading to be incorporated into a syllabus. Future syntheses of Mammalian Social Biology will rely more heavily on mainstream reports from Population Ecology (e.g., Oikos, Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology), of which Behavioral Ecology is a sub-field.

¹Care of offspring by conspecifics other than the mother

²”The evolution of eusociality, here defined as the emergence of societies with reproductive division of labour and cooperative brood care, has occurred under specific ecological, genetic, and life history conditions. Although sophisticated levels of cooperation have evolved in the largest and more complex societies, conflicts among individuals are still common because, in contrast to cells of an organism, they are not genetically identical.” (Keller & Chapuisat, 2010)

References

Bradbury JW (1981) The evolution of leks. In Natural selection and social behavior. (RD Alexander, DW Tinkle, eds). Chiron Press, New York, pp 138-169.

Briga M, Pen I, Wright J (2012) Care for kin: within-group relatedness and allomaternal care are positively correlated and conserved throughout the mammalian phylogeny. Biology Letters: p.rsbl20120159

Clutton-Brock TH, Parker GA (1995) Punishment in animal societies. Nature 373: 209-216.

Davies NB, Krebs JR, West SA (2012) Introduction to behavioral ecology. Wiley-Blackwell, 4^th edition. Oxford, UK.

Jones CB (2014) Evolution of mammalian sociality in an ecological perspective. Springer, New York.

Keller L, Chapuisat M (2010) Eusociality and cooperation. In Encyclopedia of life sciences. Macmillan, published online: DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0003670.pub

Ladevèze S, de Muizon C, Beck RMD, Germain D, Cespedes-Paz R (2011) Earliest evidence of mammalian social behaviour in the basal Tertiary of Bolivia. Nature 474: 83-86.

Sibley RM, Hone J, Clutton-Brock TH (eds) (2003) Wildlife population growth rates. The Royal Society: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge University Press, UK.

Stearns SC (2000) Life history evolution: successes, limitations, and prospects. Naturwissenschaften 87: 476-486.

Westneat D, Fox C (eds) (2010) Evolutionary behavioral ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press, UK.

Wilson EO (1975) Sociobiology: the new synthesis. Belknap (Harvard), Cambridge, MA.

*Originally published in International Society for Behavioral Ecology Newsletter, 2016

Review of some time we are heroes by Reuben Woolley (Clara B. Jones)

some time we are heroes

Reuben Woolley

2018

corrupt press (Luxembourg)

15 Euros

81 pp

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones**

“I'm interested in a poetry version of what free jazz is to jazz.” Reuben Woolley

“No good poetry is free.” Reuben Woolley

The first time I read, some time we are heroes, my reaction was: “Ah! Some time we are all heroes!” However, to attempt to read the author's intentions too closely would be to lose a sense of poetic improvisation inspired by the substance and flow of jazz. These are collage poems woven together by a tale of two broken persons struggling to communicate. At points, the story is heartbreaking, and the experimental nature of Woolley's writing befits the indeterminacy and mystery evoked by each piece.

Paul Stephens, Natalia Cecire, and others have pointed out that the “experimental” in literature is difficult to define. Historically, the genre, Experimental Literature*, was a reaction to the subjective nature of writing by Romantic poets (e.g., Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats)—attempting to be more objective, more scientific. Gertrude Stein took this task literally by conducting research with the psychologist, William James, at Harvard, and her characteristic use of repetition in her works reflected the role of replication in validating scientific experiments. For purposes of the present review, I follow Theodor Adorno's somewhat imprecise definition discussed by Stephens whereby experimentation is “a method by which the artist seeks unforeseen outcomes.”

Reuben Woolley, a Brit living in Spain, is a highly-regarded poet who has been featured in publications such as jacket2. He edits the online journals, The Curly Mind, a venue for innovative poetry, and, I am not a silent poet, an online journal dedicated to poetry addressing all types of abuse, an overtly political mission. Although, the poems in some time we are heroes are not explicitly political, Woolley has published with Erbacce, a widely-recognized progressive press in the UK, and his poems have appeared in the online journal, Proletarian Poetry. The author communicated with me recently that, “Among the influences on the work are a wide range of British, American and European poets, writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, whose plays I consider to be among the greatest poetry of the 20^th Century, and musicians such as Captain Beefheart, Bob Dylan, Roy Harper, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Terry Riley.” Though the epigraphs to this review may appear to be contradictory, Woolley has made clear that his writing process and conventions, including his use of white spaces, is intentional. Indeed, the poems in this collection are carefully crafted examples of innovative literary minimalism.

Within the genre, “experimental,” some time we are heroes can be considered a collection of collage poems for which words, phrases, and sentence fragments do not necessarily follow logically from one another, having the effect of isolating the words in a manner that makes them more or less equivalent in weight or importance to what a typical SENTENCE might be in a more traditional poem. In some ways, this is similar to the weight or significance given to single lines when the first letter of the first word of a line is capitalized for each line of a poem [as per, for example, many poems by Wallace Stevens and John Ashbery]. Collage elements are, particularly, enhanced by the use of white spaces that might, also, be viewed as erasure and that highlight the rhythms inherent to jazz's improvisation [“ i just tick/for syncopation/ he says.who cares/for words”]. Some critics have suggested that using white spaces may indicate a subject that is otherwise absent, perhaps suggesting all that goes unsaid between mary and john, the central characters of the book.

Woolley's use of periods between words, also, highlights rhythmic components of language, creating chord-like components, similar to chords in a traditional piece of music or to the typical 12-chord structure of jazz compositions. Other features that mark Woolley's collection as “experimental” include titles that, for the most part, bear no apparent relationship to the poem that follows. Further, the absence of caps throughout the text is a convention having the effect of not privileging one word over another—even “given” names: mary, john [“nothing is a name.say nothing”].

Like Stein mentioned above, repetition plays a central role in some time we are heroes. The couple, mary and john [“sad john/said mary”], appear over and over as their troubled relationship is depicted, including, references to alcoholism [“& how john/was always there/with an ear & a drunk”]; allusions to mary's addiction [“the show/couldn't start.mary/had to place/ the needle/ just so/the tracks.the traces”]. Within these disturbed and disturbing scenarios, a baby appears [“ I bear/a daughter/a john/& stitches”]—perhaps evidence that john and mary still maintain some level of physical intimacy in an otherwise fractured bond.

The repetition of wet things—liquid things—is ubiquitous throughout the text, [ e.g., water, blood, rain, beer, breast milk, ocean, liquor, tears], and the occasional use of “cut” or “cutting” introduces dark elements. Woolley's symbolism is understated though one cannot overlook biblical meaning in mary's and john's names and references to a life force by employing “blood,” “red,” and water. Of course, the color, “red,” also, indicates, danger, a signifier for the perilous emotional path upon which the couple treads.

On balance, some time we are heroes is the most impressive volume of poetry that I have read in some time. Because of thematic and symbolic repetition, the book coheres as a unified text despite collage and other innovative, experimental elements. Woolley's reputation as a mature poet is well-deserved, and I look forward to reading his future work.

*For a broad overview of this topic see: Bray J, Gibbons A, McHale B, Eds. (2015) The Routledge companion to experimental literature. Routledge, London and New York.

**Published January 2019 in The Bitchin' Kitch, Winter Issue

Suggestions for fieldworker #womeninEcoEvo (Clara B. Jones, ~2013)

I hope all young female fieldworkers reading this want to "shoot for the top" as scientists...want to be the one to stimulate their peers' imaginations, want to change their peers' perception of EcoEvo/Behavioral Ecology/Social Biology, want to produce work with staying power and interpretive power, want to conduct research that leads to basic questions and empirical tests...are competing to be in the top 1% or 5% of EcoEvo/Behavioral Ecology/Social Biology...

1. Keep your work life and your personal life separate.

2. Have a Plan B and a Plan C.

3. Be intentional [conscious and aware] about your plans for the present and for the future.*

4. Set realistic goals, but push yourself to bring something to the table that noone else brings to the table; higher-order quantitative skills are a winning strategy almost every time.

5. Break large plans, projects, unrealistic goals, etc., into manageable, realistic, sequential [not necessarily linear] "chunks." Focus; "buy" uninterrupted time; define your questions operationally.

6. Learn 1 or 2 high-tech and/or quantitative skills in demand by others in your department, in your sub-discipline, in Behavioral Ecology/Social Biology, as a whole.

7. Become friends with a M.B.A. and learn how to create demand.

8. Become friends with a M.B.A. and learn how to package yourself as a product.

9. "Know thyself". Calculate how choosing a life partner and/or falling in love and/or getting a divorce and/or having a loved one become ill and/or becoming ill yourself would affect your work schedule, productivity, commitment, mobility, concentration, etc. In particular, consider the costs of assuming caretaking roles/responsibilities.

10. "Know thyself". Calculate how becoming a Mother and/or becoming a single Mother and/or discovering that your "priorities change" for whatever reason and/or deciding that a long-term commitment [e.g., family] has more disadvantages for you than advantages would affect your work schedule, productivity, commitment, mobility, concentration, etc.

11. If you want to be a highly competitive Behavioral Ecologist and if you plan to have a long-term relationship and/or have children and/or practice "attachment parenting" and/or care for elderly relatives or otherwise become a caretaker, seriously consider becoming a basic or applied quantitative theorist, statistician, and the like. These specializations may be more flexible [as per spatiotemporal flexibility; amenability to publishing]. Another strategy is to choose a study model that allows flexible research planning, perhaps, a model that is amenable to lab study.

12. Give an informal party for other "early-career" female Behavioral Ecologists. "Role-play" a variety of life tactics, strategies, and challenges.

13. If you want to have a long-term partnership and/or children and/or if you want to practice "attachment parenting", interview other females who have parented this way and are productive at a level that is part of your plan.

14. Become friends with a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and learn how to communicate your needs, beliefs, values, attitudes, opinions, and plans effectively, constructively, and realistically.

15. Become friends with a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and learn stellar negotiation skills.

15. Speak up and organize females in your department around issues pertinent to females in Behavioral Ecology [e.g., combining and managing family duties and fieldwork; sponsoring symposia at professional meetings; working collaboratively; keeping ones-self safe when working among male researchers; managing an academic career as a single Mom]. "Hear" feedback about your issues from peers and senior professors and colleagues.

16. Hold yourself accountable. Do not make a commitment or assume a responsibility until you have an intentional plan for effecting the commitment or responsibility. You are a grown-up. You are a professional.

17. Listen to your peers and senior colleagues as seriously, as intentionally, as you would have them listen to you.

18. Be explicit about the logical structure[s] of your own needs, arguments, plans, and goals.

19. Be explicit about your sub-texts as well as your texts.

20. Focus on solutions, not problems.

21. Befriend a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and learn stellar time-management skills.

22. Sex cards, race cards, ethnic cards, class cards, disability cards are "low" Aces. Don;t use them.

23. Deconstruct the logical structure[s] of your needs, arguments, plans, and goals.

24. Be straightforward about the degree of influence you want to have in academic/research  Behavioral Ecology and about what you must do to achieve that degree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Raven's_five_bases_of_power

25. Before you make a commitment to graduate school, financial assistance, or, otherwise, to a department or job, identify a Mentor and speak with the Mentor before making the commitment.

26. Do not choose a "role model" [unless, of course, it is Louise Emmons]. There is no shortcut to finding your own voice and being your authentic self as an academic/research Behavioral Ecologist.

27. Think of a successful career model in terms of 1st principles of Ecology: [E]--acquisition, consumption, allocation.

28. Realistically and accurately determine what you bring to the table that no-one else brings to the table. Higher-order quantitative skills are almost always a winning strategy.

29. If you respect yourself more than anyone else, you will have your best to offer.

30. If you love yourself more than anyone else, you will have your best to offer.

31. Allocate your T & E into tasks, roles, etc. consistent with what you bring to the table that no-one else brings to the table.

32. Allocate your T & E into tasks, roles, labor, etc. that utilize & maximize your strengths.

33. Decide in collaboration with your Mentor what strengths/skills you require to increase your effectiveness and competitiveness to maximize the chances of operationalizing and actualizing your plan[s]. Higher-order quantitative skills will almost always be on this list.

34. You are a professional in a privileged position. Make the interests of Behavioral Ecology your own.

35. You are young or otherwise in "early-career;" the glass is 1/2-full.

36. Learn to "switch" a glass from 1/2-empty to 1/2-full.

37. Befriend a M.B.A. and learn to view yourself and your work as investments.

38. Befriend a M.B.A. and learn how to achieve the highest rates of returns on your investments.

39. "Get" that your T & E are limited resources. Every second subtracts.

40. If you live through others, they will never forgive you, & you will ultimately regret it.

41. If you live for others and not for yourself, the others will never forget.

42. You're at the big table now, girls--in the big game; it'll require a lot more work to be taken seriously. The hardest thing to achieve in academia is to be taken seriously.

43. There are no short-cuts, and there are no guarantees.

*44. If you decide to take time off for caretaking, plan, at the very least, to arrange some sort of academic affiliation--even if it is a university in the country where you are conducting fieldwork or, for another example, with a teaching institution [HBCUs are another option]; also, arrange to stay on top of the literature in your field and in related fields. Keep in mind, however, if you are taking time off from a career in EEB to have children, there are no good substitutes for bottle-feeding, for a nanny or for good child-care, & for having a "parent-centered," rather than, a "child-centered" family arrangement. There is no substitute, also, for foregoing "attachment" parenting.

45. 4/21/2020 in the midst of Pandemic Shutdown: Fieldwork will never be the same--particularly, longitudinal fieldwork...[a] some #womeninEEB might want another animal model with which they can study their questions...do not let your career stall; [b] learn higher-order quantitative skills--all Social Biology/Behavioral Ecology researchers must have, at least, "agent-based" ["individual-based"] modeling [test your assumptions! test alternate hypotheses! conduct experiments mathematically!] [c] use databases available online or directly from researchers with whom you can collaborate; treat these data sets quantitatively [there are tons of descriptive/Natural History studies that have not been treated quantitatively!

Review of A Clock of Human Bones by Matthew Borczon (Clara B. Jones)

A Clock of Human Bones

Matthew Borczon

Yellow Chair Press

2015

$10.00

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones*

Until recently, war has been a man's game, inspiring poetry since Homer's Iliad documented the 10-year Trojan War in Ancient Greece (about 1,200 years B.C.). Homer's epic poem told the story of battles between King Agamemnon and the warrior, Achilles, fighting in and around the city, Troy, a site located in what is now Turkey. In the West, poems about war are particularly common among British (e.g., Alfred Lord Tennyson, Wilfred Owen, W.H. Auden) and American (e.g., William Meredith, Robert Lowell, Muriel Ruckeyser) writers who often idealized their country's and their countrymen's roles in battle. In his poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” American, Randall Jarrell, wrote, “This is how it's done:/this is war./...Men wash their hands, in blood, as best they can:/I find no fault in this just man./” The Viet Nam war seemed to change America's perception of “war” and “warrior,” as expressed by Yusef Komyankaa in his poem, “Tu Do Street,” “We fought/the brothers of these women/we now run to hold in our arms./” Soldiers and war are humanized, their foibles exposed, including, the pain that they experience and cause others.

Matthew Borczon's book, A Clock of Human Bones, won Yellow Chair Review's 2015 inaugural Chapbook Competition judged by poet, Kai Coggin. Borczon presents a raw, compelling, record of his experiences in 2010 as a Navy medic in Afghanistan, as well as, the personal aftermaths of his deployment. Coggin stated that she chose the book because, “His work stood apart from the pack, I just knew...this is the one. This book will stay with me for a long time.” Borczon's poems do not disappoint the reader. They are, at once, personal narrative written in experimental style and expressions of psychological realism offered, for the most part, without overbearing sentiment and emotion. As a revelatory token to the reader, Borczon shares that he suffers the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD, e.g., the poem, “Dreamed Too Often,” pg 18), an illness described with candor and without self-pity.

The form of these poems is minimalist, almost a series of fragments woven by each poem's dominant theme. Borczon usually eliminates the conventions of punctuation, capitalization, and lineal conventions, producing a conversational tone and feel to the pieces (“this war/scrubbed clean/with bleach/and lye soap/sterilized daily/this aint no/killing floor/the klling/happens/beyond the/flight line/of the/helicopters/here/is just/where they/come to/die./” (“No Killing Floor,” pg 2). Clearly, writing the book served as catharsis for the author, whose economy of style and thought compresses the process of trauma over time and space. Borczon allows himself to be vulnerable to his reader, exposing his fear and loss, as well as, his own detachment and his comrades' cruelty. The linguistic and emotional compression of the poems in A Clock of Human Bones reflects the need to truncate responses under stressful conditions that do not permit the luxury of extended reflection. Thus, writing about a dead child, “/all/I remember/is the/exact color/of the/towel/I wrapped/its body/in./” (“Hazel,” pg 4—note the depersonalized, “its” instead of “his” or “her”). Borczon's poems masterfully integrate form, function, and substance.

Even though the themes in this book are personal, particular, and, often, foreign, the reader can identify with many of them because they express experiences common to all of us. In “Night Terror 1” (pg 16), for example, the poet recounts, “/I have/not found/your body/parts yet/but I/will keep/looking/for them/year after/year in/my dreams/,” highlighting memories of loss and reconciliation, human universals. Borczon tells us that, during his time in Afghanistan, dreaming was “repressed,” perhaps explaining the explosion of night terrors once he returned home (“What Do I Want,” pg. 28).

Except for the poem, “Foliage,” on pg 5 (“We once/walked across/the whole/base just/to see/some live/grass./”), the intense nature of the pieces under review is not relieved by joy or hope or color (except the color, red—of blood). One wishes to be informed that Borczon is healing, that he no longer has night terrors, that his darkness is now light. The poet, Michael C. Peterson, has described his own writing process as one in which he takes his writing to the point where it almost breaks. Many of the poems in A Clock of Human Bones “break” under the weight of their author's continuing sadness, a characteristic that often gave me a jarring feeling. On the other hand, by the last poem, Borczon suggests that he is charting a course ahead, that living is more than an act of soldierly duty. One looks forward to reading more of his exquisite poems when Borczon is further away from the edge (/I want/the ghosts/of the/dead soldiers/to carry/the ghosts/of the/wounded/far enough/away so/I can't hear/their scream/” (“What Do I Want,” pg 28). In the meantime, Borczon will attract a large and deserved following. I, like Coggin, will remember these poems “for a long time.”

*Originally published in Yellow Chair Review, 2015 

Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments (Reviewed by Clara B. Jones)

Elise Cowen: Poems And Fragments

Tony Trigilio, Editor

2014

Ahsahta Press

Boise, Idaho

170 pages

$28.00

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones*

Because of the success of male poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gregory Corso, the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s is a prominent project in post-war American literature. Beat poets challenged social, cultural, political, psychic, and literary conformity, advancing oppositional world views. Many of these writers were tragic figures, and, in his controversial poem, “Howl,” Ginsberg stated, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by/madness, starving hysterical naked.” In a 2014 interview with Jonah Raskin of San Francisco Gate, Diane di Prima, often called “Queen of the Beats,” defined “Beat as a state of mind not bound by any particular time or by a single generation. Beat belongs to the great American counterculture.”

Elise Cowen (1933-1962, suicide) was peripheral to the Beat community in New York City, a woman burdened by severe mental illness necessitating periodic hospitalizations and by episodes of depression as well as psychosis. She struggled to support herself and to sustain her fragile social life. Though Cowen had a fling with Ginsberg in 1953 and served as his typist in 1960, their relationship seems to have been superficial—exploitative on Ginsberg's part, idealized on Cowen's. Her poem, “Love” (68), exemplifies this ideation:

Not the neon sign

of heaven & earths

But done with nots

Not the neon Lover

reflected off my dreams

Or not that only

But you

With chest hair growing cross

None of the Beats, including, Ginsberg, seems to have taken Cowen seriously, and she does not receive even passing mention in di Prima's 2001 memoir, Recollections of My Life as a Woman. Di Prima's book should be read concurrently with Tony Trigilio's edited volume of Cowen's writing for documentation of the women active in the Manhattan and San Francisco Beat communities and for a first-hand, cogent record of the place of women in those projects. In her memoir, Di Prima characterizes a woman's role among the Beats as, “To be available [to men], a woman's art I saw as a discipline, a spiritual path. To be available, but stay on course somehow.” Though her friend, Leo Skir, remained intensely committed to Cowen's memory and to her writing, her depression must have been magnified by her exclusion from the affairs, writing conferences, parties, book readings, and coffee shops that Di Prima so vividly recalls.

As documented by Trigilio and by Cowan's body of work, she was incapable of “discipline” or focus, though, aspiring to mimic Beats, she exhibited an interest in Eastern religions. Her own Judaism is featured in several of her pieces, suggesting that she was attempting to define a “spiritual path,” arguably, worth comparing with other female Jewish poets who have employed their religion as a theme. Alicia Ostriker comes first to mind.

Cowen was a “poor soul” who Trigilio attempts to resurrect as a serious poet in his generous and scholarly Introduction. In her 2014 review of Trigilio's edited volume in Sink Review, Becca Klaver notes that numerous female writers have received attention in “recovery projects” and that the collection of Cowen's, mostly fragmentary, writings is representative of this genre. Trigilio highlights Emily Dickinson's influence on Cowen, evident in many titles (e.g., “Sometimes in my dungeon there comes a crawling thing;” “If I never saw the snowfall”) as well as her preoccupation with death. Dickinson's poetics is, also, reflected in Cowen's use of horizontal and vertical lines, soft and hard rhyming, and unconventional punctuation, as well as, perhaps, her habit of preparing handwritten “fascicles” in notebooks. Trigilio, also, points out that Cowen's writings show her respect for Ezra Pound and Dylan Thomas, and, indeed, her writing is, often, imagistic and musical (“A cockroach/Crept into/My shoe/He liked that fragrant dark”). It can, also, be noted that, like Gertrude Stein, Cowen's pieces employ copious white spaces and, less frequently, repetition.

Trigilio erects an organizational framework based upon four “recurring motifs” in Cowen's writing: “a revisionary response to matters of the sacred;” a “simultaneous continuity and revision of literary tradition;” “affinities with the form and content of Beat generation literature;” and, “frank portrayals of the psyche.” Examples of each of these “motifs” can clearly be identified in Cowen's pieces; yet, it seems exaggerated for Trigilio to suggest that the architecture and meaning of her work rises to the level of poetics. On the other hand, some of the pieces are convincing poems, though, for the most part, not noteworthy ones. Exceptions would, in my opinion, be, “The Time Clock” (70), a haunting poem that Klaver, also, highlights; and, the precious and heartbreaking, “No Love” (116). As Trigilio sensitively suggests, Cowen needed more time to develop her craft and to revise her work.

As a woman with bipolar disorder who has struggled to accommodate serious work with a serious medical diagnosis, I identified with the symptoms and effects of illness in Cowen's writing, a “motif” worthy of systematic investigation and comparison with other female poets who committed suicide, in particular, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and, from an earlier generation, Sara Teasdale. In her poem, “Phenomenology Of Anger,” Adrienne Rich wrote, “Madness. Suicide. Murder./Is there no way out but these?” Rich and di Prima found ways “out” in radically different ways, and it might be productive to analyze their poems and biographies with Cowen's. Di Prima's memoir explores in depth the ways that she and other women managed the stresses associated with demands upon female artists. Extending the idea of mental illness as a “motif,” Rich, in the same poem, points to “the freedom of the wholly mad,” suggesting that scholars should study licentiousness and humor in Cowen's writing, particularly, as they may relate to compromised impulse-control.

Trigilio reports that, in 1960, upon submitting a typed manuscript to Ginsberg, Cowen said, “You still haven't finished with your mother.” It seems of import to observe that Cowen might have been speaking of herself since a number of her fragments address, directly or indirectly, unresolved feelings for and continuing conflict with her own mother. The degree to which Cowen's writing is that of a self-absorbed patient whose work expresses unconscious motivations could be addressed by a psychoanalytically-inclined scholar as another “motif.” Finally, in di Prima's view, the pervasiveness of drug use ended the Beat generation, and this theme, also, might serve as another “motif” to explore in Cowen's biography and preserved body of work. It is impossible to know what her destroyed notebooks might have revealed or what we might have discovered if more details of her life were available. It is, however, a credit to Trigilio that he has collected and commented upon the work of a sympathetic figure worthy of recovery from a complex period of American literary history.

*Published in CutBank, 2016

Review of Fortune by Alaina Symanovich (Clara B. Jones)

Fortune*

Alaina Symanovich

2015

17 pages

Damaged Goods Press

$3.00 (ebook)

$6.00 (Print)

Reviewed by Clara B. Jones

How do we cope with and recover from the insanity of infatuation? This is the question addressed by the young poet, Alaina Symanovich, in her chapbook, Fortune, edited by Caseyrenée Lopez, publisher of Damaged Goods Press whose website describes it as “a micro-press specializing in queer/trans poetry and flash fiction chapbooks” celebrating the “beauty and terror of queer life.” Queer and lesbian literature have, most commonly been expressed via the genres, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance, though queer and lesbian writers are among past and contemporary high-profile poets (for example, Gertrude Stein, Audre Lorde, Maggie Nelson, Eileen Myles, Nikki Giovanni, Mary Oliver). In her fiction, Symanovich has described her early persona as a “boyish girl,” perhaps a precursor to identification as a lesbian, and, in one of her short stories, she mentions her father's interest in the supernatural, possibly, explaining the author's fascination with Tarot (Fortune-telling).

Indeed, in attempting to come to terms with a failed relationship, Symanovich organizes her series of poems as a game modeled on a deck of Taro cards. The cover of Fortune represents l'étoile tarot, card CVII (#17) of a deck, associated with Ganymede, a “divine hero” named for Jupiter's 7^th moon. As one of her devices, the author's final poem appears on page 17, and many hours might be spent researching Tarot numerology in relation to the positions and page numbers of Symanovich's poems. For example, a Tarot deck comprises four suits and 4 face cards which sum to 14, the number of poems in the author's book. Symanovich's text is a verbal and numerical (quantitative?) game that can be analyzed as a whole or in separate pieces. “The Fool” is the trump card in a Tarot deck. The author's “fool”, a scarecrow described on page 7 in the poem, “Glitter”, is a figure with whom the poem's female narrator (presumably, the author), identifies. Interestingly, by the end of her text, the narrator appears to triumph over, to “trump,” an abusive object of desire whose gender identification is ambiguous (possibly, a transgender male, a bisexual, a lesbian, or a hetero-normative female). In this poem, and, throughout the book, the narrator's voice is passive, suggesting that she views herself as a victim, as stated in the poem, “Relief,” on page 8: “I was always in respect, deferential, stepping back/half-lit silhouette./.” Reflecting a concern with inequality, Taro card #8 is “Power.” In the poem, “Retrograde,” on page 9, the narrator acknowledges her subordinance to the unattainable object (“Your reign is stronger.”), another sign of her feelings of powerlessness.

On pages 10 (“Winter”) and 11 (“Quarantine”), the desired object is revealed to manifest a psycho-dermatological pathology, and the infatuation is characterized as crazed. Indeed, the narrator is metaphorically bleeding, possibly, a symbol of physical damage, emotional and spiritual suffering, and/or menstruation (the word “blood” occurs in several poems). On page 12, “Supernatural,” the narrator states, “I dammed away the truth about you.”, referencing the unconscious, a Freudianesque marker of Surrealism, the apparent literary root of Symanovich's poems. Though a poem should speak for itself, consistent with classical standards, the author's contrivances seduce, even, require, the reader to play games with her in a search for meaning. These highly lyrical poems threaten to be overwhelmed by their complex structures. However, the narratives in Fortune can be understood as “innovations on the lyric,” as the critic, Linda Russo, has stated about other female poets' work. Russo points out that lyric allows a writer to examine gender, community, and/or personal intimacies, a fitting concept for Symanovich's use of the forms in her book. See, for example, the author's use of last lines to reference first lines of subsequent poems, highlighting images and language for the reader as well as linking poems to one another—intimate acts.

I do not know which female poets have influenced Symanovich's practice. However, her narratives were reminiscent of Mary Oliver's, “The Uses Of Sorrow” (Thirst, 2006). Oliver wrote: “(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)/Someone I love once gave me/A box full of darkness./It took me years to understand/That this, too, was a gift./” Similarly, in her final poem, “Fantasy” (page 17), Symanovich “envisioned a new freedom,” though she characterizes herself as being in a dream-state. She, suggests, then, that she remains embedded in myth rather than reality, and one wonders whether the narrator-author has moved beyond victimization or powerlessness. Certainly, Symanovich's narrator remains self-conscious and full of anxiety. Her poems are personal narratives, and radical feminists and political queers would suggest that her [homo-]normative (binary?) view of relationships requires expansion to the political realm. In future work, for example, Symanovich might consider viewing her themes through the lens of Patriarchy, an institutional arrangement that radical feminists hold accountable for female suffering (e.g., depression, marginalization, power asymmetries). Notwithstanding these reservations, Fortune deserves a wide audience as testimony of one young poet's attempt to understand intimacy, to recover from pain, and to achieve agency.

Review of This Is A Clothespin by Lucas Scheelk (Clara B. Jones)

This Is A Clothespin*, **

Lucas Scheelk

Damaged Goods Press

2016

50 pages

$3.00 (eBook)

$6.00 (Print)

Transgender poets are, arguably, the most underrepresented marginalized writers in the literary community, though, their visibility is increasing. Most of these poets address their identities through personal narrative and, often, experimental forms challenging the mainstream's aversion to poetry with a “message” and with strong sentiment without a conventional degree of detachment. Some transgender poets, however, are gaining a reputation beyond the borders of their own communities, including, Lee Mokobe, Stephen Paden, Zach Hanlon, and Ryka Aoki. Transgender poet, Trace Peterson, recently designed and taught the first college course on transgender poets and poetry at Hunter College.

Another reason for the increased presence of chapbooks and books by transgender poets is the appearance of literary presses encouraging submissions by this sub-group of writers. Among these outlets is Damaged Goods Press, whose webpage describes its mission as “a micro-press specializing in queer/trans poetry and flash-fiction chapbooks,” celebrating the “beauty and terror of queer life.” The publisher and editor of the press, Caseyrenée Lopez*, has recently issued a book, This Is A Clothespin, by Lucas Scheelk, who describes themselves as a, “white, autistic, trans, mentally ill, queer-identified poet,” conducting research on “autistic coding in modern media”, particularly, the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Based upon an e-mail interview, Scheelk informed me that they have been writing since the age of thirteen and studied creative writing as an undergraduate. Their poems are often presented innovatively, including, the use of white spaces and, similar to a signature of Gertrude Stein's writing, the use of repetition. For example, several of Scheelk's pieces are titled, “This Is A Clothespin,” revealing self-consciousness about their self-presentation and their tendency to be stereotyped when in public. Suggesting that Scheelk experiences social anxiety and panic attacks, they write, “To avoid the question, 'Are you autistic.' in public, to avoid the answer, 'Yes, and I can't breathe.'” Though Scheelk's poems are intensely personal, and, sometimes, written in a cryptic way, they speak to all readers who are reluctant to reveal themselves or who may have something to hide or who have experienced “imposter syndrome.” Another title poem reveals Scheelk's youthful angst when they state that their writing derives from “internalization so deep I can tell you in detail each psychological wound....”

Scheelk makes it clear that music and writing are life-saving components of their practice, reporting that they return over and over to Sia's song, “Chandelier” [“I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier....”]. In several poems, Scheelk seems to speak to their former identity, addressing transformation and finding their true self. The author has a refined ability to share their inner voice, demonstrated, for example, in the poem, “Headline—the long-term effects of harmful narratives against autistic people.” Several of Scheelk's poems are in the form of letters to anonymous recipients or, perhaps, to everyone or to a former way of being. When telling us that, “Here, on paper, time-travel is possible....”, they announce, “I deserve to live,” expressing the seeds of personal insight and self-care, self-awareness, and the will to survive their pain and “trauma” (Scheelk's word), as well as, their self-destructive tendencies (“The artifacts of self-harm come from shame.”; “They ask if taking testosterone was causing stress; I respond that it brought me happiness.”). This Is A Clothespin is not without lightness, though, and the poem, “Polar Bear And The Lemon” is reminiscent of a fairy tale.

I feel that I would violate Scheelk's intimate contract with their audience to reveal all of their secrets. They are worthy of respect, not observance as a spectacle, even though a number of these poems may lead some readers to feel uncomfortable. When considering the poet's use of repetition, I felt that its

purpose was, in part, to say, “I want you to understand them.” Though Scheelk trusts their readers sufficiently to take risks with the darkest details of their experiences, their writing is, like Sia's persona, provocative and veiled. When reading Scheelk's poems, I felt, not only, their pain and trauma, but, also, an abiding sense of loneliness; although, not knowing the author, their “voice” may not be that of an isolated writer but, less problematic, a singular and gifted artist. Whatever the case, I hope that they find or belong to a community of supportive comrades who realize that some element of their shared challenges derives from patriarchy and the rigid sexual and behavioral norms represented by its institutions and hierarchical structure. Scheelk informed me that they are currently working on a second volume of poetry, a work that will be eagerly anticipated by their current followers and appreciated by future readers.

*My heartfelt thanks to Editor Lopez for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

**Originally published in....