debut poetry

Friday Feature: Logan February’s Mannequin in the Nude

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Our Editorial Assistant Erinn Batykefer sat down with Mannequin in the Nude author, Logan February  to discuss all things poetry.

In his engrossing collection, poet Logan February documents and interrogates grief, and God and examines what it is to be on the outside, even in the family setting — the reality of having a queer identity in the African world. In this volume, eroticism and manic depression are navigated alone. Some of the poems use a mannequin as a projective tool to dissect self hood, histories, and family connections in the aftermath of a fundamental bereavement. February additionally explores religious concepts to further mythologize the self, collecting Buddhist philosophies and Yoruba proverbs and myths, and putting them adjacent to the toxic tenets of Pentecostal Christianity, which is widespread in Nigeria. In the vein of confessional poetry, the narrative takes its pride in exposing the elements which are deemed taboo and advised to be hidden away. The poems are equally fearful and raunchy, tender and defiant, morose and youthful.

Erinn Batykefer: Your new book, Mannequin in the Nude, is voracious in the use and transformation of forms (cento, haibun, sonnet (a crown of them!), alexandrine, villanelle, etc) and language in a way that makes them belong to this book. Is all of your writing acquisitive?

Logan February: Thank you for noticing all of the forms in the book! I like to think of form as method. It can be quite exciting to make a task out of a poem’s execution. The sonnet crown, especially, is integral in the dissection of projections and the self, but also in furthering the narrative arc of the book toward some semblance of a resolution. But the poem does not always want to be methodical, sometimes it desires indiscipline, to not be constrained. I try my best to honor that, too, to ensure I am writing the truest incarnation of the poem. It changes as my mental landscape changes, and I’m grateful to have a bounty of forms to keep up with the flux. I think the most important thing is that I’m not bored by the poems I’m writing.

EB: If you could take on motherhood for a moment and give someone we’ve lost a name like Durojaye to encourage them to stay, who would you re-name?

LF: If I could name anyone Dúrójayé, it would be Gabriel Fernandez and Giovanni Melton (the poem ‘Alexandrines on Grief’ is dedicated to them), because they died far too young, and had so much more life to live. For them I would take on motherhood.

EB: Poems like “Corpus Vile” call up Tyehimba Jess’s “double jointed” poems, where each column is a poem and reading across the spine is a
third. Is there a particular order you follow when you read this one? When you wrote it?

LF: Ah, yes, contrapuntals are one of my favorite forms! A hell of a challenge, too. Tyehimba Jess’ contrapuntals were the first I ever read, and I was utterly captivated. Other favorites are  Xandria Phillips’ ‘You and I’ and  Safia Elhillo’s ‘yasmeen.’ When I read ‘Corpus Vile’, I start with the left column, then the right, and then I read them across.

Writing it wasn’t that simple. I had practiced writing “second halves” to short poems I found, trying to synthesize second and third narratives from pieces that were already complete. There were lots of rewrites and frustration while I was drafting ‘Corpus Vile’. I didn’t figure it out until I started to work on both columns almost, but not quite, simultaneously.

EB: Mannequin’s speaker(s) believe “resurrection is a holier thing than rebirth.” Is this an idea that you bring to your writing process?

LF: This consideration was born from comparative examinations of the concepts of resurrection in Christianity, and rebirth in Buddhism. I was raised on the idea that rebirth was somehow evil, while resurrection was this miraculous and wonderful snapping back to life, which I think is a load of bullshit. This comes up because the book worries the question of death, and what it could mean to live again. To continue or to start over?

When this question is directed at the creative process, I find it even more curious. I don’t often revisit ideas that I feel have reached a dead end, but it does happen every now and then. But when I do bring an idea back to life, it’s not the same as it was before. So is this idea resurrected or reborn? I’m not sure, but I think they may have more to do with each other than we assume.

EB: If you could upload one text into the brains of your readers Matrix-style before they opened your book, what would it be?

LF: It would be Richard Siken’s Crush, mostly because that book was one of the first in which I felt seen. It’s a phenomenal work of poetry that everyone should read. My book would probably pale in comparison, but that’s okay

EB: Is there any word you wouldn’t put in a poem?

LF: I can’t think of any. I don’t have a least favorite word. I mean, I’m not interested in writing hateful words, but maybe someday I’ll be interested in reclaiming a slur in a poem (obviously, one with contextual proximity to my personal experiences). So you never know. In the end, the poems will decide what words they allow.

EB: What’s your short-term low-commitment hair color recommendation for spring? What color should we all wash in and pretend we’re someone else for a day?

LF: Powder blue, like Frank Ocean (I’ve never done this color, but I would love to!)

EB: Anything else you’d like to tell us? We love you, and we’re terrible at keeping secrets.

LF: Ha, I love you too! I can’t say too much about what I’m currently working on, but there is a strong Sappho influence, and the backbone is a long poem, which is the most challenging thing I’ve ever written, probably. In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get back into reading (more) fiction. My last read was Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend. I thought it was fascinating and quite excellent.

 

Mannequin in the Nude will be released at AWP and is available for presale at: https://pankmagazine.com/shop/mannequin-in-the-nude/

Logan February is a Nigerian poet. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Washington Square Review, The Adroit Journal, Vinyl, Paperbag, Tinderbox, Raleigh Review, and more. He is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, and his debut collection, Mannequin in the Nude (PANK Books, 2019) was a finalist for the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. He is the author of two chapbooks, and the Associate Director of Winter Tangerine’s Dovesong Labs. You can find him at loganfebruary.com

[REVIEW] Operating Manuals in the Dark by O.B. Bassler

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(Gauss PDF, 2019)

REVIEW BY CLARA B. JONES

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Speaker 1 : Taylor, hi! I haven’t seen you in ages! What are you up to?

Speaker 2: Dylan! What a surprise! I’m off to a new bookstore on 57th Street. I’ve heard they have a great selection of Postmodern poetry. How about you?

Speaker 1: I’m going to a poetry reading by the philosopher, O.B. Bassler—a new discovery. His debut collection is a hybrid book—poems in a variety of forms on recto pages only. I am writing a paper about the relationship between poetry and philosophy for my Innovative Literature class. Do you have a minute to talk?

Speaker 2: Ummm, sure, I’m curious! I’d like to know more about Bassler. Maybe I could borrow his book when you’re done with it? I am reading the Romantics, now, but am almost ready for something different.

Speaker 1: Bassler’s favorite poet is a German Romantic, Friedrich Hoelderlin; but, he progresses from beautiful lyric poetry to experimental writing—all displayed on recto pages. I think you would find his work interesting. Here’s another passage:

 

“one life is enough

and sometimes it is more than enough

sometimes it is more than enough

to make it through the day or hour or minute

and that is why what is painful

demanding excruciating even torturous

is so close to what is beautiful

that I can easily mistake the intensity of flight

for the intensity of any pleasure real or unreal

and hang onto it for dear life

unto the cleaving from life itself

if such is necessary”

 

Speaker 2: Definitely, lyrical, but with Modernist overtones, too—especially, repetition, like Stein.

Speaker 1: Yes, and Bassler uses other Modernist techniques—no titles, no punctuation, no capital letters. But, experimental methods, also—lots of white spaces define those particular poems. But, more than that. Some of his devices remind me of the ones often used by James Joyce—flow of thought and feeling, metaphor, symbolism, ambiguity, subtle overtones evoking history, myth, and the complexities of life. These conventions, appearing throughout the collection, bind the book together, as they do in Ulysses.

Speaker 2: I am curious to take a look at the book! My boyfriend is studying concrete poetry and visual experimentation this semester. He read an essay by Joe Bray who said that white space can be sites of humor, gravity, play, and reflection. I think of white spaces as erasures or ways to disrupt reading. Does Bassler use white space in those ways?

Speaker 1: Well, yes, in some ways, but there is not much humor or play—much reflection, though. The poems have lots of “interpretive power,” as Helen Vendler would say. Bassler is writing about the human condition over time—Time in the sense of Physics…

Speaker 2: …what does he mean by that?

Speaker 1: I can’t say, exactly, what Bassler intends to say, but I conducted a bit of research when I was reading, Operating Manuals in the Dark, and I learned that, just as Time is an indefinite process of events as a whole, Reality can be viewed in a holistic way. Listen to this:

 

“…the ultimate coincidence of the metaphysical and the physical is the greatest madness of all

now that the metaphysical clock keeps perfect time I should go back and read a number of books

starting with the ones that move forward and returning to the ones that move back

I’ll make a list of one hundred metaphysical books and one hundred physical books

and the two lists will be the same list”

 

Speaker 2: I never studied Physics. Do you think I’ll understand Bassler’s work?

Speaker 1: Oh, definitely! Music, image, rhythm, form, and language outweigh any particular message; and, you will see that Bassler’s poems include many iambs and that they become increasingly minimalist. In fact, if I have an opportunity to ask him a question tonight, I want to know whether his black cover and blank verso pages are references to Kazimir Malevich’s paintings and to his theory, Suprematism—Bassler may be trying to move as far as possible from objects—maybe, even, from objective reality and reductionism! Analyzing metaphysics seems to be his ultimate concern. Let me read one more quote: “the metaphysical clock/the metaphysical clock is not dead it is dying one second at a time/the metaphysical clock runs fast it must be corrected to match real time/not the same backwards and forwards and not the same as metaphysical time.”

Speaker 2: Ummm, I’ll have to think about that when I have the text in front of me. It’s 4 o’clock, and the bookstore closes at 6. I need to catch a bus. I’m so glad that I ran into you! When can we get together for lunch?

Speaker 1: I’ll e-mail you. You can borrow Bassler’s book, and we can discuss his reading. I hope he publishes another collection!

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Clara B. Jones is a Knowledge Worker practicing in Silver Spring, MD, USA. Among other works, she is author of Poems for Rachel Dolezal, published by Gauss PDF in 2019

[REVIEW] Give a Girl Chaos by Heidi Seaborn

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(Mastodon Books, 2019)

REVIEW BY CARLA BOTHA

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The end of another year is always a good time for reflection upon the chaos we all had to battle in order to survive. Give a Girl Chaos is Heidi Seaborn’s first full-length collection of poetry and is a tribute to the chaos around us. Her poems explore and celebrate the world with all its infinite chaos — disasters both personal and public, in this striking collection filled with pain and joy.  Not only is her work visually appealing, but every poem is carefully constructed as it navigates the space on the pages with choice syntax and diction, internal rhyme, metaphor use–lines and stanzas are easy to comprehend, and don’t demand a guessing game.

Readers will discover a hidden gem inside every poem, which makes it surprisingly easy to trust the poet on this journey of chaos. With unexpected twists and turns into the unknown, Seaborn delicately reminds her readers that turmoil is part of the world we live in, and shows how beauty, disappointment and invisible, sometimes visible forces of nature can surprise us, if we are willing to take a good look at the world around us.  The poem “Stop Motion” shares some of this beauty and disappointment all at once, but I am not going to give it all away, this is just a little taste of what is awaiting the reader:

 

Once in Santa Cruz

hundreds of monarchs swirled

around me

flirted

with eyelashes          fingers

then flew to Mexico.

 

 

Clutter of paper tigers

 

spread across a canvas of snow.

 

Wings fanned in all directions             frozen

in flight.

 

Sometimes we fail to see the signs— …

 

As a poet who has lived all over the world it’s clear that Seaborn doesn’t like the limitation of borders, this can be observed throughout her work. Her personal recollection of boundless experiences become poignant poems discussing a diverse selection of themes not often seen paired together, as many poets nowadays habitually, maybe unconsciously choose to focus mainly on one specific theme. Give a Girl Chaos challenges this phenomenon as it “breaks the rules” by reaching outside the confines of a ‘one theme collection’ — one of the main reasons why this makes for a fantastic read.  Divorce, sexual assault, earthquakes, bomb explosions, falling in love again, watching her children grow up, experiencing Thailand, Nepal, Mexico, the Arab-Spring in Egypt, drought in Tanzania. The last poem “How It Ends” brings this collection full circle, “Ah, the hopes of hornets, / you and me.  The road ends here.”  Seaborn gives her readers a tool for survival, which will remind them of how to endure chaos long after they have finished this collection.

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Carla Botha lives and work in the United Arab Emirates.  She is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry through NYU’s low residency program in Paris. She also serves on the editorial board of the Painted Bride Quarterly.  When she doesn’t work, she prefers to spend time at home with her four dogs, tail-less cat and a cup of black coffee.