Abstract

The Jill Kelly Poems eulogizes a mythic, masculine self, cherishing a Bacchus-like existence while simultaneously coming to terms with its impossibility. The collection presents a libidinal space where movies, music, sports, and pornography--not in opposition to each other but in relation to each other--are unified by language. The variety of forms (sonnet, epigram, triolet, haiku) and genres (imitation-translation, long poem, sound poetry, elegy) reflect and, more importantly, accommodate a variety of emotional and physical experiences. The final section of the collection, "The Jill Kelly Poems," uses pornography as a medium for criticism directed at that which is commonly designated and valued as poetic by poets and critics alike. It is also an expression of sexuality, of the body and its functions, particularly, anal sex. The influence of many (from Robert Herrick to Martin Scorsese, from W. B. Yeats to Jill Kelly, from Robert Lowell to Snoop Dogg) on form and prosody should be obvious and, ideally, have contributed to what I hope is an unusual poetics that alternately roars and whimpers--just like a man.