Customer Reviews

Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fresh as an oyster in December, these poems slide deliciously down the throat and leave one hungry for more. The big names are all here: Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, John Ashbery...along with some tender young voices that seem to have stepped fully-formed and tremendously endowed from the ashes of the old: Mark Wunderlich, Mark Bibbins, Justin Chin and D. A. Powell. Who is D. A. Powell anyway? His poems make me want to swallow him whole. The collection is tonic and elegant, with only the occasional bit of fat (do we really need another anthology with Mary Doty in it?). Keep it next to your pillow, along with with a bottle of "wet."

To answer the other New Orleanian's question: D.A. Powell is an incredible young poet, An Iowa graduate, who has published two books of which i know, Tea, and his new one, Lunch, which isn't as good over all but which contains probably my two favorite poems of his, "[My father and me in hollywood, fading and rising starlettes]" and another about his father which ends with a reference to Gone with the Wind. He's one of the highlights of the anthology and everyone should check him out!

No self respecting gay poet would have signed off on being enclosed in a bland white! cover. The anthology itself is excellent, of course not all the up and coming legendary current poets are here. Seems it is true one only sees who one sees. And to answer the previous reviewers questions regarding the inclusion of Miss Doty in another anthology: he is needed in order to elevate the status of the current lesser knowns, a basic law of signature.

Kiss Kiss Rachel Tensions

Webster's says "poetry" is concentrated imaginative language. And "gay" would relate to minority-group experience? I don't see very much high poetic quality here, nor explicit references to gay perspectives (not just sexuality, but "diversity" of viewpoints).

Oh, some are good. John Weiners' confessionals. Dan Bellm's "Boy Wearing A Dress" on gender-identity. James Schuyler's chatty "Who Is Nancy Daum" is a bracelet of imagery-stones. Wayne Koestenbaum's campily-operatic intonations.

But too many times (to use an analogy) it's a flatland of prose, lacking poetic mountain-vistas. Like Frank O'Hara: "Lana Turner has collapsed!...I have been to lots of parties / and acted perfectly disgraceful / but I never actually collapsed / oh Lana Turner we love you get up." Like Taylor Mead: "I came pretty close to / upchuking [sic], Chuck." Like Jack Anderson's "Partial Index to Myself": "B Bach ballet bark worse than a bite bed befuddlement birthdays." Like too many more.

Nor does the anthology show gay presence, experience, response. Editor Liu says, "I still question the notion of a 'gay sensibility.'" He was "simply interested in documenting a particular and peculiar time in contemporary American poetry, turf notwithstanding."

Fine, but why, plus why call it gay? I wandered through pages of non-gay scenes--like walking through fields without a "hint of mint" (to use an analogy plus an allusion). Too bad: minority poetry (Blacks, Native Americans, etc.) can give the "outsider" vision. And the selections from Dennis Cooper, Thom Gunn, Edward Field, and Frank O'Hara are not the memorable gay-imbued visions I recall.

What went wrong, if it did? Editor Liu seems underinvolved in the project. Talisman House approached him "to edit an anthology." And "after some thought I decided that an anthology of gay American poetry would best suit my energies." Not the decades-long project which Gavin Dillard claimed was his anthology A DAY FOR A LAY.

Good-quality gay poetry does exist. But artistic excellence is often eclipsed today by either political "relevance" (which seriously damaged the Larkin and Morse anthology GAY AND LESBIAN POETRY IN OUR TIME) or flat-prose conversation chopped up into lines and masquing as poetry. Still, do visit Liu's garden for the few but definite poetic and gay-blooming flowers which do grow there....