A review by tombomp
Balloon Pop Outlaw Black by Patricia Lockwood

4.0

first I admit I am not very good at poetry. I struggled with reading this sometimes which is why it took me a while. Sometimes I was really afraid of not "getting" it but I found it easier once I took it slower and let the images wash over me without trying to resolve them into clear forms. the book is filled with surreal dream logic and progression connected by metaphor. a lot of poems are around extending the logic of cartoons and comics and drawing and the connection between "reality" and representation eg what is the biology of a popeye. There's so many fascinating images in here with lots of incredible ideas that keep me thinking after reading. and then they swing to the next idea through a strange tenuous logic yet the whole thing hangs together somehow. there are 3 long poems plus a bunch of short ones. all of them are fascinating and interesting. because I'm a dunce at poetry I didn't get as much as I probably should out of all them but I want to return to it later and reread and think about all the ideas again and think about the logic and give each idea a lot of attention and idk it's just. really clever and fascinating and imaginative and feels like a glimpse into a whole new world of something