MOTHERLAND FATHERLAND HOMELANDSEXUALS by Patricia Lockwood

by jilliephillips

I didn’t read this book for the Read Harder challenge. I felt I needed a bit of a break (even though I read this at the same time as Reading Lolita…) and as a poet, I was seriously lacking in the inspiration coffers. This collection is super-fantastic!

If I’m not mistaken, I had originally passed on this book when I found it in the library. It’s somewhat surreal, not quite Dadaist, though. Lockwood personifies everyday objects quite frequently and when I read a piece about Niagara Falls, I just didn’t think I’d be quite into it. How I wish I had known better! Fast forward a couple of months to discovering Lockwood’s poem “Rape Joke” in a Pushcart Anthology and I was 100% sold.

Lockwood is absolutely masterful in her poetry. She treats her topics and the images she uses with a fresh, sometimes dark, sense of humor. It’s a sarcasm that I rarely find in poetry; it speaks to me. She makes a lot of observations about the dichotomies women face in our society, as well as personal (yet removed) obstacles.

I noticed that where some poets would be completely confessional, Lockwood inserts cloudy language and “out there” images/concepts. It reminds me of how one will sometimes use the “I have a friend who” trope in order to make a story about anyone but themselves. In a way, it makes those moments in Lockwood’s poems more personal, more intriguing.

Lockwood deserves all the accolades she got for this collection, though I will admit that I am incredibly jealous of her unique style. I love that there is poetry out there that is strong, different, feminist, and so willing to address the shit that nobody else wants to talk about.