Customer Reviews

Hand Over Heart

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The editorial review is only half right about this book. Trinidad's poetry is, at this early point in his career, diaristic, in the "I did this, I did that" vein of Frank O'Hara or James Schuyler. And often beautifully so.

But to find fault in the book for what's missing in it (i.e., an address of the AIDS epidemic) is misguided. Clearly this reviewer had a preconception of what a book by a "gay" poet writing in the 80s should be: political, brave, anguished. If that's what you're looking for, read "The Man with Night Sweats" by Thom Gunn (which is wonderful) or Mark Doty's work.

Trinidad is a different kind of writer. His project is to examine the ways pop culture affects (and sometimes tyrannizes) the individual. It's a smaller one, but one that's no less valid. Expecting every gay poet to write on AIDS is like saying every lesbian has to write about homophobia or breast cancer, or that every Japanese writer has to write about Hiroshima-or whatever the "gravest problem/event" affecting the writer's so-called subculture.

A more valid question to ask might be: how does the specter of AIDS subtly affect Trinidad's poetry (e.g., his inability to achieve intimacy in these poems, his reluctance to date men, and his poignant retreat to the world of objects when people prove too threatening)? Instead of blaming Trinidad, we might come to better understand how gay men who didn't acquire HIV nevertheless had to grapple with the emotional fallout.

That said -- although I really like *Hand over Heart* -- the book will probably appeal most to those already familiar with Trinidad's writing. (Or to fans of the poet James Schuyler, who Trinidad is definitely channeling here.) But check out *Answer Song* and *Plasticville*, Trinidad's more recent volumes. I love both books. Answer Song is a very well-rounded and accessible book of autobiographical poetry that is so casual and contemporary it never seems like poetry. Plasticville is cooler, more conceptual: the poetic equivalent of an Andy Warhol painting.