Review: Darling Beastlettes by Gina Abelkop

title:  Darling Beastlettes [purchase here]

author:  Gina Abelkop

genre:  poetry

published: 2011

source:  I purchased a copy at her reading at the Mustard Beak.

"Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words."

~Paul Engle, New York Times ( 17 Feb. 1957)

Have you ever read something and come across a phrase or a line that made you stop and think "DAMN I *wish* I had written that!"?  That happened more than a few times as I read Darling Beastlettes over the weekend.  Gina's stunning collection made the 2 1/2 hour Greyhound bus ride to Hartford, CT surprisingly enjoyable (despite the dude sitting next to me who took  "Greyhound bus" to mean "moving booze-free karaoke bar" and rapped aloud to himself for all 2 1/2 hours...with choreography...).

Poet Gina Abelkop, founder and editor of feminist press Birds of Lace, is supremely gifted at creating haunting, otherworldly images and turning out gorgeous verse.  At the heart of her poems are women, real and imagined, recognizable and authentic.  Adroitly observant, the themes Gina tackles aren't new (gender roles, sexuality, femininity, love, lust, etc) but they feel that way due to the welcome freshness and honesty of her perspective.  

My favorite stanza from "Heather in Curls":

"Ask for a hideaway bedroom, one with a secret fireplace, a stack 

of fabric that leads in well-tread steps to another country, one with mountains. 

You can cry over them as much as you'd like, they'll be there forever."  (p. 39)

A snippet from "Greta" (my FAVORITE piece in the collection):

"...At night

opened her breast like a gushing fruit

and fed reveries of love.

Nightingale wanted some

she could crawl inside.

Others looked upon her snidely,

ripped at her raw chest, 

wouldn't fit,

closed their own in return.

All this gore and nothing." (p. 61)

GAH!  Just...wow.  Brutally observant, her delivery is at times as fanciful as it is raw...which isn't easy to pull off without coming across a tad manic (which she does not).  As I said in a previous post, I don't know much about what experts say makes a poem "good," BUT I know what speaks to me, and Gina does.

Rubric rating:  8. I am absolutely keeping an eye out for her future work :)

You can read poems by Gina Abelkop at:  La Fovea, Two Serious Ladies, and Everyday Genius, among other places (check out her blog for a far more comprehensive list).  And if you happen to be in LA, check her out at The Empty Globe at Pieter Projects w/ Kate Durbin @ 8pm, or at the Saturday Night Special Reading Series @ Nick's Lounge, both on May 25th.

Birds of Lace reading at the Mustard Beak

Friday night, feminist press Birds of Lace sponsored a reading at Queens art space Mustard Beak featuring the work of Gina Abelkop, Carrie Murphy, Rohin Guha, Jason Helm,  and Niina Pollari.  

A few words on the Mustard Beak art space:  it's located off the Myrtle-Wyckoff stop of the L on Gates Ave in the basement of an apartment building.  Now, to enter the space, you have to descend the absolute scariest concrete stairs I've ever used:  uneven, of drastically different heights and widths, covered in broken glass and trash...if I had known I'd be straight up urban hiking, I would have worn slightly more appropriate footwear (i.e. not my new amazing wedges!  The way back up after several Yuenglings was equally treacherous, if not more so. You have been warned!).  

That said, what a great art space!  Spare and intimate, with Christmas lights strung along the pipes and a pleasant note of incense in the air (politely and effectively disguising the typical musty basement smell), it was perfectly suited to hold the 20-30 people in attendance.  Ideal for the starving artist on a budget.

I'm a big fan of small, independent presses.  I feel like, more often than not, major publishing houses, in the interest of profit, either publish authors they feel like may bring major literary accolades OR writers who they can acquire for cheap and publish at a profit, which leaves a lot of young talent in the lurch (i.e. a writer working out of the box, or who has created something a bit more innovative might not sell as well as a, say, poorly written YA paranormal romance novel about chaste teenage love).  I am continually delighted by work that I stumble upon coming out of some of the small presses.  

A few highlights from the readings:

Gina Abelkop

Gina read from her poem collection Darling Beastlettes, which is now taking up residence in my to-read pile.  Full disclosure:  I don't know a ton about poetry in terms of what makes a poem technically "good," BUT I know what I like.  Abelkop is really adept at creating interesting and lyrical images, which she reads beautifully. I'm really looking forward to curling up with her collection!

Carrie Murphy

I went to high school with Carrie, and am so proud of all she's accomplished.  She recently completed her MFA at New Mexico State University, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2011 for her poem "Ocean City" by NAP magazine, and her first full-length collection of poems is available NOW from Keyhole Press.  Buy it here!  Loved the pieces she shared and I can't wait to get my hands on my own copy of Pretty Tilt.

In other news, I got a new Flaubert inspired tattoo!  Pics coming soon, once it's healed a bit more :)