Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems

by David Trinidad

"This magnum opus confirms David Trinidad's place in the poetic he is simply the best we have. A worthy successor to James Schuyler, Trinidad writes soulfully and sometimes photorealistically about the melancholy threshold where dolls and stars become inner objects—dirty, glamorous, destructible. Jacqueline Susann meets Sei Shonagon? Trinidad manages to combine neo-formalist abstraction with dripping gorgeous Bonnard's wet dream."—Wayne Koestenbaum "This is a volume celebratory in tone, panoramic in scope, funny, and genuinely moving. Trinidad is at the center of what's relevant in his art. And this collection is more vital and more enjoyable than any single performance he has given thus far."—D.A. Powell "Trinidad attends to the present to see into the past with such needle point precision it's like encountering a perfectly appointed movie set where personal memory crosses intimately with cultural memory. Poetic form in Trinidad's hands is a metaphor for staking a claim on the material world even as it slips away in a shimmery Hollywood dissolve—a desperate, doomed reclamation of all that can never be held long enough."—Robyn Schiff "Utterly deadpan and astonishingly fine" is how Publishers Weekly described the poems of David Trinidad. And here is the collection all David Trinidad fans have been waiting for—the first book to have works from all his previous books along with forty new Dear New and Selected Poems .

Genres: Poetry, Queer

494 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2011

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is there not to like about David Trinidad's poetry? His love for pop culture of his time is seductive to the maximum. I'm a fan of his poems. They're gossipy in that literary sense, and his words/visions are very moving as well. Fantastic compilation of some of his older poems as well as recent works.

[Paul Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

TRINIDAD CAME UP with an ingenious way of organizing the book. Most "new and selected" volumes tuck the new poems at the end, but Trinidad put them in front and gave that section its own title, "Black Telephone." The section is about the length of a generous collection (120 pages), so I would not be annoyed to plunk down $19 for this even had I already purchased the volumes from which the "selected poems" were selected.

Trinidad combines elements I never would have expected to be combined: a passion for Sylvia Plath with a passion for Patty Duke, for instance, or thirty-four haiku based on episodes of the 1960s television series Peyton Place, or a list in the style of Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book that includes "The voice of Dusty Springfield." . Much of the work is based on and quite candid about his own memories and experiences ("Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," "AIDS Series"), but we also get formal experiments like an idiosyncratic erasure poem based entirely on phrases Sylvia Plath underlined in her copy of Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night.

Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Sharon Tate appear, as does Dick Fisk (a gay porn star); steering by those stars, we know we are in queer/baby-boom/male waters, but there are more than enough surprises to keep things interesting.

THE "SELECTED" SECTION of this generous (almost 500 pages) "new and selected" collection has its own title, "Dear Prudence," and the poems are arranged in chronological order, each with the year of composition noted--a very satisfactory way to proceed, I thought.

Trinidad's books started appearing in the 1980s, when he was in his later twenties and earlier thirties. I don't remember exactly what new poets I was reading at the time, but I wish I had been reading Trinidad instead. "The New Formalism" was getting attention at the time, and I must have read some of that, but none of it has stuck with me; Trinidad's "Playing with Dolls," however, a sestina about being a boy playing with Barbies, would definitely have made me a fan for life.

I could say the same for "Fluff," with its syllabic verse about a short-lived addition to the Barbie line, or "Monster Mash," a catalog of movie monsters in a Shakespearean sonnet, or "Chatty Cathy Villanelle," or the quatrains of "Evening Twilight," or the terza rima of "Garbo's Trolls," or the list of early 1960s top 40 hits in "In My Room," or "Every Night, Byron!", a long poem from the point of view of Trinidad's dog, its title a nod to Jacqueline Susann.

And I may as well mention Trinidad's extended pantoum about the Bette Davis film "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and its epigones (which Trinidad titles "Hack, Hack, Sweet Has-Been," which was the title of Mad magazine's parody of "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"--I remember it well).

Trinidad has a near-Wildean genius for treating trivial things seriously and serious things with a sincere and studied triviality. If that doesn't sound like your sort of thing, well, there's always Robinson Jeffers.

The high point for me was "A Poem Under the Influence," about fifty pages long and under the influence, I am going to guess, of James Schuyler. Schuyler was one of the American poets who figured out how to be modern without being a Modernist, and the whole of contemporary American poetry is in his debt. Trinidad's is a fitting tribute.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read this quote in one of my online lessons :

The following quotation from Martha Graham is one worth memorizing: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urge that motivates you. Keep the channel open.”

With Dear Prudence, David Trinidad has done just that -- kept the channel open. This is a collection full of life -- the ugly and the lovely. Trinidad has shared a piece of himself with us so that we too may find a way to keep the channel open.

[Mauberley]

I read his poem for Rachel Sherwood on-line and it was enough to send me looking for this volume. It was pleasure to read and as a contemporary of Trinidad's, I found his references to events in pop culture to be a delight to explore. Like the best of pop are, he re-contextualizes records by the Supremes or episodes of the Patty Duke Show that compel the reader to see these things in a brand-new light. The poem entitled 'A Living Doll' was wonderful to discover but, I confess, that by the end of the book, I was hoping that I would never see another poem about Barbie dolls. Small quibble - this is smart, bright poetry rendered by a poet with a strong grasp of form. Although Trinidad makes many references to his sobriety, that shouldn't put you off enjoying this book from an enhanced or refreshed perspective.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw the title, I hoped it had something to do with the Beatles' classic song, "Dear Prudence." Turns out it does!



This is the first David Trinidad book I've read, and I really enjoyed it. I really like (and admire and am envious of) poets that can do new things with poetry. A list of songs you enjoyed as a kid could be a poem -- well, it is in the hands of David Trinidad. I try it and would sound like crap.

Trinidad has a wide variety of poems here, from haiku to multi-page epics about the color pink and how it has impacted his life. His best known poem (I think) is "The Shower Scene in Psycho" where he not only uses the individual frames of the shower scene in Psycho but takes them and braids them with the Charles Manson family murders and scenes in his own life at the time. It's brilliant and I wish I had thought of it.

And I never knew Barbies and collecting Barbies could be so poetic.

[Falling Leaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I liked the poems reflecting on his young life, teenage years and early 20s. I love the queerness and the pop culture references.

I didn't love it all equally but there are some real gems in here. I would even go as far as to say Trinidad would be a bit of a model for me for my own poetry.

One slight criticism and it's not really about the book per se but about the culture of poetry. But like a lot of other poets Trinidad teaches creative writing. I know everyone has to earn money but I can't imagine Rimbaud or Bukowski teaching in an MFA programme. It's like they are all such good little girls and boys. I dunno it just kind of sucks somehow.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favourite poet. Ripe with character, narrative, and pop culture references, Trinidad crafts poems with wit and flair on subjects that range from observations of old tv shows, to the AIDS crisis, to the lives and moments between other celebrated poets like Sylvia Plath. I learned, laughed out loud, and was inspired.

[soleil · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many poems on too little material. This collection largely focuses on collecting, minute detail, growing up (and being a grown-up) gay,toys, pink and Barbies-- all interesting topics, but not for nearly 500 pages of poems.In some ways, this poetry is the story of our day; consumerism and rock legends fill up the pages... led into the poems by cliches. The style is not terribly formal, although there is at least one villanelle and one sestina. Trinidad favors short lines and speech-like language.

I know I am not being fair to this book. I had to read it on a deadline, and poems are never as good as they could be when you're pressed for time. I also had to read it in huge chunks, and I think this is a book better sipped than gulped. I am not a poet, nor do I read very much poetry on my own time; what I do is usually shorter and more formal than this. The book does deal with some

[Jee Koh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed David Trinidad's New and Selected Poems. He is of the New York School, grandson of Frank O'Hara and son of James Schuyler. He combines an air of improvisation with a keen sense of form. The content is rather run-of-the-mill: white boy from suburb do drugs, drink and sex, then sober up to take his poetic vocation seriously, falling in love, and then breaking up with a longtime-partner, losing friends to AIDS. But he has an unmistakable zest for life and friendship. And an obsession with Valley of the Dolls and collecting vintage Barbies. The details of a life add up. I like the thinginess of the poetry. In its unabashed inclusion of every small thing and every stray thought, it expands the boundaries of the permissible and the significant.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the new poems in this volume, the following have immediately impressed me: "Black Telephone," "Without a Title," "Jacqueline Susann and Her Husband," and "The Past."

[Sebastian]

First read: February 15, 2018, Thursday