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A review by rubywarhol
Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals by Patricia Lockwood
4.0
I don't think a poem has ever made me cry before. But reading this book, it happened multiple times.
From moving metaphors about home and identity crisis ("Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals"), youth and innocence and vulnerability and how it's exploited by the media ("The Whole World Gets Together And Gangbangs A Deer"), to a person's (or animal's) history and the all-consuming love you can have for someone and everything associated with them - as well as the question of belonging ("He Marries The Stuffed-Owl Exhibit"), there were a lot of breathtaking lines that I had to read twice because they just took me by surprise.
Some poems are magical, starting with a wholesome cuteness to then become haunting ("An Animorph Enters The Doggie-Dog World"), some deal with longing and loneliness ("Nessie Wants To Watch Herself Doing It") and feminist issues.
The poet turns fetish porn into poetry ("Revealing Nature Photographs") but doesn't shy away from calling it by its name. She just throws a concept out there like "what if a waterfall without water went to a wedding" and you think "that's a metaphor right?" But then she describes it in detail as if it's completely normal and in fact happening right now in this reality.
She hits us with simple but unexpected lines like "am I dead yet, where am I, did we win?" ("The Hornet Mascot Falls In Love") or "it asks is something else in here dying the way I'm going to?" ("The Brave Little ___ Goes To School") and turns mundane things like 3D ("The Third Power") and neon plastic stars ("There Were No New Colors For Years") into something deep and meaningful, taking it out of the real world into the surreal just to play with it for a bit.
Patricia Lockwood is brilliant. I wish I could write like her.
From moving metaphors about home and identity crisis ("Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals"), youth and innocence and vulnerability and how it's exploited by the media ("The Whole World Gets Together And Gangbangs A Deer"), to a person's (or animal's) history and the all-consuming love you can have for someone and everything associated with them - as well as the question of belonging ("He Marries The Stuffed-Owl Exhibit"), there were a lot of breathtaking lines that I had to read twice because they just took me by surprise.
Some poems are magical, starting with a wholesome cuteness to then become haunting ("An Animorph Enters The Doggie-Dog World"), some deal with longing and loneliness ("Nessie Wants To Watch Herself Doing It") and feminist issues.
The poet turns fetish porn into poetry ("Revealing Nature Photographs") but doesn't shy away from calling it by its name. She just throws a concept out there like "what if a waterfall without water went to a wedding" and you think "that's a metaphor right?" But then she describes it in detail as if it's completely normal and in fact happening right now in this reality.
She hits us with simple but unexpected lines like "am I dead yet, where am I, did we win?" ("The Hornet Mascot Falls In Love") or "it asks is something else in here dying the way I'm going to?" ("The Brave Little ___ Goes To School") and turns mundane things like 3D ("The Third Power") and neon plastic stars ("There Were No New Colors For Years") into something deep and meaningful, taking it out of the real world into the surreal just to play with it for a bit.
Patricia Lockwood is brilliant. I wish I could write like her.