Fancy Spooky Sad Girl Poetry: Dispatch #18
this turned into an accidental love poem to Dorothy Parker.
Welcome to the Lost Friends Literary Club newsletter!
Hello and happy February! I am truly having a hard time reckoning with the fact that we’re already into month two of this year. How’s your reading goal going? I’m one book behind on my goal so far, but considering I felt absolutely book averse towards the end of 2020, I’m pretty proud of the progress I’ve made. So far, I’ve read only YA mysteries, starting with my favorite series from last year, and moving on to Karen M McManus’s new book that came out in November. This is her fourth book and I devoured the other three last year as quickly as I could get my hands on them; this last one did not disappoint. I wish she had 10 more books out, I’d buy them all.
Since I still feel like I’m easing into this year (book-wise and work-wise and life-wise), I’ve gravitated towards 2 types of books: those that I know will capture my attention for a whole dang day (mysteries for me) and books that I can slug through slowly without having to remember plot or players. To fill this last category, I’m reaching for a lot of poetry. Poetry books are great for a short attention span (me) because without chapters, you can read ten pages or a hundred pages, and either way you’ve already finished multiple works. Five pages into a book of poetry and it’s like, look at you! Five whole stand-alone literary works in under fifteen minutes? You must be some kind of genius. A speed reader! You’ve conquered the reading world.
And I don’t think I’m the only one with poetry on the mind this year. Starting with the recent popularity of Amanda Gorman’s inauguration piece “The Hill We Climb,” I’ve noticed more and more screenshots/page shots/quotes from various poets making their way onto social media, and for good reason! There’s something inherently comfortable about poetry. Even spooky poems still often have some rhythm, some cadence that feels familiar in the way it all comes together. A good poem wraps up in a way that brings solace but still surprises. Does that make sense? Maybe it’s just me. Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that right now, I’m loving lots of poetry.
This week, I’ve been slowly reading through The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker, a compendium of Dorothy Parker’s work (obviously). There are approximately one billion collections of Parker’s work and this just happened to be the one my library had in stock. This is the first time I’ve ever read Dorothy Parker, and I was inspired by the Parker-esque poem that Truly Devious is centered around- I love a little bit of dark literature and ohmygosh is Parker moody. In the best way! I love it. Parker’s poems are the exact brand of passive aggressive drama that I’ve missed for the last year since we can’t eavesdrop on other people’s public arguments (don’t judge me)- she writes a lot about how her ex-lovers will feel about her once she’s worm-bait and also a lot about graves just in general. Best described as Fancy Spooky Sad Girl Poetry which is something I can really get behind.
Because I’ve already mentioned all of the things that I’m currently reading/have recently read, I don’t really have any reading recs this week. If you’re looking for some poetry, might I suggest Danez Smith? I just bought this Selected Poems of Thomas Merton but I don’t know how it is yet, and I’m trying to track down this true crime poetry book because it ticks all my boxes. I just realized this section is indeed full of reading recs, but what’s done is done.
Your vocab word this week:
is metrophobia: an irrational or disproportionate fear of poetry.
In retrospect, I maybe should have included that one at the top, just in case.
Last but not least:
I leave you with the original spooky girl poet herself, Miss Bonnie Parker (of Bonnie and Clyde fame, no relation to Dorothy)- written in the middle of their 1934 crime spree:
Suicide Sal
We each of us have a good alibi
For being down here in the joint
But few of them really are justified
If you get right down to the point.
You've heard of a woman's glory
Being spent on a downright cur
Still you can't always judge the story
As true, being told by her.
As long as I've stayed on this island
And heard confidence tales from each gal
Only one seemed interesting and truthful-
The story of Suicide Sal…
You can read the rest here.