POEM CLUB #3. 'Trickster', by Joy Donnell

The Southbank Centre has just launched its Festival of Love, a celebration of the Same Sex Couples Act which runs until the end of August. It opened this weekend with a joyous, jam-packed programme of talks, workshops and art installations all themed around seven of the Ancient Greek definitions of love: Philautia, Agape, Philia, Pragma, Ludus, Eros and Storge. The Emma Press was representing Eros (naturally) in the Royal Festival Hall and we had an marvellous time encouraging people to write love letters and to experience an intimate reading of 'mildly erotic' poetry in a private booth.

Joy Donnell (@doitinpublic)

It was a huge honour to be involved in such a thoughtful and robust celebration of love, and I really relished the opportunity to revisit The Emma Press Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse, the first Emma Press anthology. Standing amongst the other six kinds of love all weekend, it really struck me that Eros is quite unfairly over-represented in modern culture, at the expense of other forms of love which are more likely to lead to happiness. Erotic love is exciting and camera-friendly, but that doesn't make it more worth pursuing than Pragma (love which endures) or Philautia (self respect). I also think Eros is frequently misrepresented, which is why I decided to create the anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse in the first place: it was meant to reclaim the idea of eroticism as something more than just lust and sex.

The poem we're going to discuss this week in Poem Club is 'Trickster'  by the fabulous L.A. poet Joy Donnell, from The Emma Press Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse. I'll share a few of my feelings about the poem to get things moving and then I'll suggest some ways of approaching the poem. Do add your thoughts below in the comments section. [UPDATE: this week's Poem Club is now closed, but you can still add your comments below.]

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Trickster

Wolves either come or they don’t come.

She swears every rabbit or fox or crane

could fall prey by dawn

and where would that leave the laws of the universe?

Under such stars

my legs are open and chancy.

This intimacy is at best

peregrine

so I confess to not know myself any more or less,

regardless,

I suspect our breasts will become the storytellers;

somehow

all my damages get tricked into touch.

If between her thighs rests a border town too often

mysterious,

it tastes swollen and will surely riot, tonight.

— by Joy Donnell, from The Emma Press Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse

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Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse

Emma's thoughts: I chose this poem because I don't entirely understand it and I'd be very interested to hear what other people get from it. I said a similar thing about Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi's 'Lys' in the first Poem Club, causing a friend to wonder if people might raise an eyebrow at my publishing poems that I don't fully understand; I replied sharply that I didn't see why this should be a problem, since confusion doesn't necessarily preclude enjoyment and I always enjoy the poems I publish.

I imagine the poem taking place in some warm, moonlit woods, full of vivid scents and sounds which almost engulf and erase this human encounter. I like the sense of wildness and danger, which chimes with my feeling that sex isn't just a glossy, pink, Ann Summers kind of a deal. Sex can be hilarious and down-to-earth, but it can also be life-changing, earth-shattering and transformative. I think it's highly inadvisable for anyone to assume that they know all there is to know about sex, which is why I like the image of the 'border town' so much. It's completely unexpected but makes a weird kind of sense, reconfiguring what's 'between her thighs' as something unstable, politically significant and full of vibrancy and life.

Your thoughts: We had a couple of great responses this week to the dark, powerful sexuality portrayed in 'Trickster'. Emily Tealady saw in in this woodland vignette a study of human desire and the familiar transition from arousal to sex to orgasm. She said: 'I get a sense of [...] this heightened awareness which you get when you meet somebody and you feel that sexual connection, and also of climaxing itself.' I think this is a poem you have to feel in your gut, responding instinctively to the words and phrases, so it's fascinating to see how Emily's reading of the poem picks up on the subtle ramping-up of tension and the dizziness evoked by violent, extreme words like 'riot', 'prey' and 'damages'.

MonochromeThief homed in on the feminist slant of the poem, reading the threatening atmosphere as a commentary on society's understanding of the female experience of sex: 'The imagery of prey hints at the fear and violence of female desire and its threat to 'the laws of the universe' (which I read as the patriarchy).' MonochromeThief's response reminds me of some of the comments in our first Poem Club, about the defiant, powerful sexuality depicted in Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi's 'Lys', and I particularly like her interpretation of that arresting image in the penultimate stanza: 'Women are not all passive sexual objects and this poet creates imagery of power & strength: 'I suspect our breasts will become the storytellers' suggests the gaining momentum of the female voice.'

Thank you for both contributors to Poem Club, and thank you to everyone else who read and enjoyed Joy's poem. You can read both comments in full below, and the winner of this week's 'Most Thoughtful Commenter' prize is ... MonochromeThief!

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What do you think of 'Trickster'? Do you find it erotic? What do you think is happening in the poem? What sense do you get of the poet's idea of eroticism? Let me know in the comments section below or by email – poemclub [at] theemmapress.com. Don't be afraid of sounding stupid! Just let us know what you like about the poem or what it makes you feel. This week's Poem Club is now closed, but you can still add your comments below.

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