Sensual Math: Poems

by Alice Fulton

Drawing upon science, myth, popular culture, feminist theory and autobiography, this collection of poems demonstrates Alice Fulton's poetic virtuosity. The words exhilarating, powerful, generous, daring, and enchanting have been used to describe Alice Fulton's poetry. In Sensual Math , her broad-ranging intelligence continues to surprise and electrify. Drenched with the beauties of perception and language, with syntactical stretch and give, Sensual Math embraces areas often excluded from poetry. Drawing upon science, myth, popular culture, feminist theory, and autobiography, Alice Fulton creates an entrancing and important postmodern poetics. In the sequence called "My Last TV Campaign," an advertising executive tries to apply the successful imitative strategies of nature to a context of consumerism. By reimagining the myth of Daphne and Apollo, another sequence dismantles attitudes surrounding rape and the ancient association of woman with nature and man with culture. Daphne becomes a composite of Amelia Earhart, Annie Oakley, Emily Dickinson, and Marianne Moore. A major work by a poet who has been called breathtakingly fluent, blessedly unpredictable, "Sensual Math" figures the world as a blend of Zen and Elvis, calculus and honey. The final triumph is that poems so profound can be so profoundly engaging.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

For a photo gallery, the story behind the stories, and a reading group guide for The Nightingales of Troy, please visit alicefulton.com

Reviews

[Tristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's rare when I truly LOVE a book of poetry and Alice Fulton's work is one of those rarities. She blends so many different aspects together (feminist ideals, myth, science, and more) in such a delightful, powerful and mesmerizing way. Her poems are sticky and rich and I can't wait to read everything she has written. I checked this one out from the library and it's going on my wishlist to own. Her poetry needs to be read over and over and relished at different times of life - through all perspectives.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Fulton, Sensual Math (Norton, 1995)

I'm not entirely sure what to say about Sensual Math. Sometimes you find yourself so wrapped up in a book that you end up with nothing at all in your head; the contents have washed everything else away. The book's twelve standalone poems and two sequences hit pretty much every high note there is to hit.

“I'm faking Lamaze and ancient mantras. I'm having
new veneers. The dentist talks about a relative
who boasted over 364 girlfriends
and seduction rooms in every shade.
He was in air conditioning
and smoked himself to death
though he could hold his breath
longer than anyone else.
'My role model,' he says.”
(“Fuzzy Feelings”)

The sequences are the kinds of things you wonder why no one's ever come up with before, being a simple and awesome as they are. “My Last TV Campaign” gives us an ad exec who comes out of retirement in order to conceive a set of feel-good PSAs for his old company which no one ends up understanding, while “Give: A Sequence Reimagining Daphne and Apollo” gleefully mashes up Greek mythology and postmodern culture, casting Apollo as Fat Elvis (essentially) and Daphne as a mix of role models, from Marianne Moore to Amelia Earhart. It all works wonderfully, which should be no surprise to Alice Fulton fans (of whom there should be scads more than there are):

“...Apollo ate nothing but pasta
with a dab of porpoise sauce. He despised Cupid for dressing in a blouse
slashed to the waist and a tiny gold-lined cape from Nudie's Rodeo Tailors.
For the mixed metaphor of his jumpsuit that flared to wedding bells white
as a pitcher plant's. Apollo was still exulting over

his recent easy
listening hit when he happened on Cupid's opening at the Vegas Hilton.
'What right hast thou to sing “My Way,” thou imbecilic Fanny Farmer midge larva,
thou sewer-water-spitting gargoyle, rednecked bladderwort, dirtbag, greasedome
and alleged immortal of a boy,' Apollo fumed...”
(“Mail”)

Subtle, sexy, and always in control of itself, Sensual Math is one not to be missed. Find yourself a copy pronto. **** ½

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodness, Fulton rocks! This is my second book of Fulton's poetry I've finished this week and I think my head is a little tight at the corners now. I liked the poems in "My Last TV Campaign" the best...she's got such a beautifully wry and raw look at famous personalities. I'm going to read her newest book of short stories now. I need something a bit more accessible to fill my weekend... :)

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I get that images are imperfect measures of the meaning behind them, and that language is stuck in a tenuous position of stitching one person's reality to another. But I'm not all that convinced of what compelled Fulton to this realization, and her clever approaches can be interesting (as with the "Last TV Campaign"), or gratingly superficial (as with "About Face").

[ValerieLyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

good poetry is such an instantaneous rush. it's like cheating at reading.

i did not read every poem in the book (i rarely do with poetry; that's like eating every dish at a chinese buffet...) but fulton's got a magnificent way with language and i would love to hear her read her works one day.

[Sarah Hackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Beautiful.

[Alex Bilzerian · Rating 5 out of 5]

let me put it like this ==

[Sophie]

"lifes too short to blush"

EXCUSE ME

[Hilary Ryder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a better book of poems than I could write, but it didnt really move me, nor was it thought provoking.

[Russel · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Give way to the fabulous." OMG silver sequins on a pink t I'm going to fuck up West Hollywood all over again. Plus, I now say this whenever I enter a room. Shoving people aside? With limp wrists? Is the new fucking cool. Possibly the Jesus of Cool.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like any of the poems I read, but persevered through the first 1/2 before giving up.

[Trever · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not the largest poetry reader in the world, but I know poetry and this was something else.

[Maddelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poems I'll return to: "A Little Heart to Heart with the Horizon," "Drills," "Southbound in a Northbound Lane."

[Sarah Guthman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't understand what she was saying.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

More sensual poetry. It says so right on the cover.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

yawn

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensualizing math is only the beginning of the wonder Alice Fulton works.