Daily Glance--Gina Abelkop
Gina Abelkop's Darling Beasties is fun, but at times it is a disturbing read. The poems contain lots of sex, violence, gender issues, beasts, and humor ("Have some sort of plan you can apply to everything from walking down/the hall to making a plate of spaghetti"). Take this bit from "Fishwife Responds":
A queer thing happened
the other day--
my apron spit-up sullied, light
creased from a spitty chain-hung lamp--
all of a sudden I was
lain down, the hand of
God threaded through
me as if fibrous and thin.
"Queer"--that's humorous understatement for sure. The poem obviously evokes Pound's poem as though a response directly to it, but it starts with what seems like a rape by God. This is not God's light shinning down on Paul or Levertov's description of Caedmon's divine experience. "Spit-up," "sullied, "spitty"--the language conveys the violence of this visit. This act is not alone in these poems, for many of the poems bring in gender violence, like the poem "Get Out of My House."
This is the first work I have read by Abelkop. It's intelligent and satirical, and I can say that the book makes me want to go look for more of her work.
A queer thing happened
the other day--
my apron spit-up sullied, light
creased from a spitty chain-hung lamp--
all of a sudden I was
lain down, the hand of
God threaded through
me as if fibrous and thin.
"Queer"--that's humorous understatement for sure. The poem obviously evokes Pound's poem as though a response directly to it, but it starts with what seems like a rape by God. This is not God's light shinning down on Paul or Levertov's description of Caedmon's divine experience. "Spit-up," "sullied, "spitty"--the language conveys the violence of this visit. This act is not alone in these poems, for many of the poems bring in gender violence, like the poem "Get Out of My House."
This is the first work I have read by Abelkop. It's intelligent and satirical, and I can say that the book makes me want to go look for more of her work.
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