Balloon Pop Outlaw Black

by Patricia Lockwood

Poetry. Even all by themselves, the titles of Patricia Lockwood's poems reveal the sort of surreal, enigmatic, rhetorically-elongated world her sensibility inhabits effortlessly: "When We Move Away From Here, You'll See A Clean Square of Paper Where His Picture Hung," "The Cartoon's Mother Builds a House in Hammerspace," "The Front Half and the Back Half of a Horse in Conversation," "Children With Lamps Pouring Out of Their Foreheads," and the inimitable "Killed With an Apple Corer, She Asks What Does That Make Me."

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Womens, Audiobook, 21st Century

87 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2012

Reviews

[Barry Pierce]

Lockwood at her best is as complex as Ashbery and as joyous as O'Hara.

[Zach]

I was the first person on the planet to buy a copy of this book. I consider that a special privilege because it's the best book I've read this year and would rank among my favorites of all time.

Though I was familiar with Patricia Lockwood's poetry before the book came out, the nature of her work means that familiarity doesn't preclude surprise. There are beautiful moments, glimpses of images that sneak up on the reader out of nowhere ("she was soft as map creases are"), only to recede as quickly as they came. My favorite thing about the poems, though, is their unexpected inevitability. They lead in unimaginable directions but always according to their own internal logic ("but the railroad / is coming out this way and we must give them a smear / to see through the windows"). When they arrive they ARRIVE. Lockwood's thoughts weave as if through a maze that only she can navigate, each turn in a different direction from the one we might expect. I think that's a measure of great poetry, the unexpected moment that stays with you, like a surprise party or an explosion. This book is a collection of moments I wish I'd thought of myself.

[Harry Rutherford]

The blurb says

‘Even all by themselves, the titles of Patricia Lockwood's poems reveal the sort of surreal, enigmatic, rhetorically-elongated world her sensibility inhabits effortlessly’

which, you know, seems pretty fair… but if, like me, you're a bit ambivalent about whether 'surreal' and 'enigmatic' are necessarily positive qualities in poetry, I think it's worth adding that the language has a clarity, simplicity and sharpness to it which means that, whatever unexpected and inventive turns the poems take, they read beautifully.

I suppose the worry if I see something described as 'surreal' is that the writer has just chucked everything at the page to see what sticks; but that is not the case here. The poems are constantly moving in odd directions, but there is always a strong connecting thread; ideas are stretched and teased and inverted, and over and over again, the result is a clever, surprising image, a shift in tone, a new perspective.

Inevitably I clicked with some poems more than others, but the best of them, like 'The Quickening', about a whale and a boy, are magnificent.

[Miranda]

this is weird and sublime and i love it and am so glad i bought it. keeping it forever

[G. Derek Adams]

How do you review poetry?

First we would have to agree on a definition, and that's a crime. Then I would have to insert arbitrary metrics of value, and that's blasphemy. I like the jazz that Patricia Lockwood plays, and some of the notes I didn't like, but she played them well all the same. She's got game, is what I'm saying.

So yeah, read it.

[Kristin Boldon]

Super weird poetry, Lockwood is amazing at clever visual and wordplay. But in the opening sequence, I found that cleverness became tiring. I enjoyed the boy inside the whale sequence, but I think Lockwood's poetry, while intellectually interesting, doesn't frequently connect with me on a deeper level.

[Sarah High]

what a kooky one. pairs well with: the essay on Pigpen by Elif Batuman, Moby Dick, and a Popeye’s chicken sandwich.

[tara bomp]

first I admit I am not very good at poetry. I struggled with reading this sometimes which is why it took me a while. Sometimes I was really afraid of not "getting" it but I found it easier once I took it slower and let the images wash over me without trying to resolve them into clear forms. the book is filled with surreal dream logic and progression connected by metaphor. a lot of poems are around extending the logic of cartoons and comics and drawing and the connection between "reality" and representation eg what is the biology of a popeye. There's so many fascinating images in here with lots of incredible ideas that keep me thinking after reading. and then they swing to the next idea through a strange tenuous logic yet the whole thing hangs together somehow. there are 3 long poems plus a bunch of short ones. all of them are fascinating and interesting. because I'm a dunce at poetry I didn't get as much as I probably should out of all them but I want to return to it later and reread and think about all the ideas again and think about the logic and give each idea a lot of attention and idk it's just. really clever and fascinating and imaginative and feels like a glimpse into a whole new world of something

[Lex]

I have no idea what was happening in most of this but I still loved absolutely every second of it. I liked The Cartoon's Mother Builds a House in Hammerspace and The Quickening a lot mostly due to how they felt like weird, surreal short stories and also The Mouth of the Anthill is Learning to Write.

*

In the desert, there are round splashes of glass where meteorites struck the sand. She goes window-gathering there.

[Jolene]

This was my poem-a-day read for May, and as someone who adores Patricia Lockwood's 2017 memoir Priestdaddy and her 2021 novel No One Is Talking About This, I WANTED to enjoy this collection. Sadly, I mostly found it to be tedious and pretentious. Many of the poems are about how characters exist doubly in their fictional world and also in the literal world as marks on piece of paper, and I guess that she's trying to say something moving about the narratives we piece together to make sense of our own lives, but any coherent message is too buried to find in these exhaustingly meta poems.

And again, this is coming from someone who will probably read everything Patricia Lockwood ever writes. No one can say she isn't brilliant.

Favorites:
"The Construction of a Forest for the Stage"

They say, "You see bright beetles," and the people
are forced to picture them: they break out into life
like beads on their upper lips, or gather themselves
like blood along a cut, or button themselves into the world
and then, in order to die, pop violently off the belly
of a third-row man in a black tuxedo. (52)

"The Front Half and the Back Half of a Horse in Conversation"

Tonight is dress rehearsal;
the horse shakes a hand heartily inside itself
and wishes itself good luck. "Are you galloping
hard in all your parts?" the front half asks the back,
and they take their first step forward, powered
with plunging stomachs.
Silence. "Who will make our Clop-Clop noise?"
the back half asks the front (54)

"Children with Lamps Pouring Out of Their Foreheads"

and the deeper we go the more we are the diamonds,
surrounded by sharp intakes of breath. Long years of breathing
the air down here have given us lung complaints: if sea stars are
all lung and tarantulas have four lungs, how can two be enough
for a Walking-Talking? Yet two is enough and two is a fact;
we cough and feel stabbing pains, we feel our own pickaxes
strike down inside us and pry up our chunks out pink
quartz, and we spit. (78)

[Katherine]

this is wild & i love it

[Allana]

love patricia lockwood and loved these poems. The imagery is a vibe.
Audio performed by the author.

[Kate]

Which words
(will be
(your next
(to last;
(what’s burnt
(your pocket
(whole))))))?

Do “out-of-frame elbows
(connect arms
(with arms”;
(does water
(seek always
(its level)))))?

Do you know me?
(say it to yourself—
(faceblindness;
(say it to the mirror)))

Call them all
(Life Sentences
(let’s strike a chord
(let’s light a match;
(set genre
(to dark whimsy)))))

What are the rules,
(and do you know them
(well enough
(to toss them out?
(we learn in haste;
(at leisure
(make the breaks))))))

There we were
(beside ourselves,
(with what
(but glee
(alone))))

There we were
(beside ourselves
(tell about a time))

Describe the cap
(you wear
(to think—
(a bonnet
(for a wizard))))

Our feet
(are podia,
(the body,
(lectern—
(do you read me?
(read my lips:
(no taxes;
(prose your poem))))))))

First and final steps:
(where lies
(your Treppenwitz?
(first step—
(it’s still alive;
(once you’ve descended,
(call it back—
(revive it)))))))

We’re working
(through a poem;
(we knead
(our daily bread—
(we earn it
(and we break it;
(stuff it in your mouth
(and swallow
(whole))))))))

We’ve taken flaming custody,
(the candle,
(on the wall—
(alight)))

Where was this,
(where we were
(before right now,
(and where next,
(after then))))?

What “hides
(behind
(the barest line”
(of leg)))?

Your sentence
(struck a match,
(and now
(you have to
(douse your fist,
(or is it military medals
(that we polish?))))))

Hold the phones,
(force your hand,
(pierce the page
(and eat it—
(our narrative,
(a cereal;
(the poems,
(a prose)))))))

Draw Treppenwitz
(with ladder
(made of rope—
(call
(back))))

The narrative
(is lived,
(lies on the page,
(where captured
(and retold
(to live again,
(incarnate;
(ask for less
(and settle
(for the best)))))))))

Crack this book open
(seek the hidden
(gem
(and see the world,
(reflected—
(find yourself within)))))

[Barrie Evans]

Mostly ugh. I saw lots of flashes of very sharp stars attached to harpoons. Too much Popeye. Too much of someone who is almost Olive Oyl. Not enough Wimpy.

I do want to read more of Lockwood’s work. She is very engaging in readings that are recorded and posted to YouTube.

I really do wish there was more about Olive Oyl and her internal life. Even when I was a kid watching Popeye cartoons, I thought Olive wasn’t getting enough attention. Who was she before Popeye? What does she do when Popeye’s away at sea?

I was truly touched by much of “The Quickening.” There were some areas I thought we were made to attend to narrative or linguistic non sequiturs. Is the reader allowed to invest their sentimentality into their reading of the poem?

I saw my reader-self as being forcibly pulled away from my hope that the boy will find clothes and more fresh water. That he might escape digestion or the whale would at least mourn his phase change into whale nutrients. And I will never learn where that room can be found “full of women who do nothing but draw bubbles for this ocean.”

I have trouble not investing myself in a book. My two-star rating is a petty revenge taken by a small-minded man with a great childhood wound. A wound deep and wide enough to swallow a whale containing a boy and a houseboat.

[Ash]

I first came across Patricia Lockwood because of her recently released memoir called Priestdaddy. Originally, I thought she was a stripper but she's really the daughter of a man of the Cloth. I looked her up and discovered she's written poetry. The only one I was able to get from my library was Balloon Pop Outlaw Black.

The best way I can describe Lockwood's poetry is by writing it's a literary manifestation of a Dali painting. So surrealism galore reign here. That isn't a bad thing, however, I didn't enjoy it.

I am not saying Balloon Pop Outlaw Black is a bad collection. Far from it. It's very well-written. However, I liked how her poems started; it all had a stem in actual realism. Then, it would segue, taking a detour into surrealism where it lost its emotional impact. Or rather, it didn't hit quite as hard.

I would still like to look into more of her writings though.

[Jessica]

Initially the pop-eye conceit struck me as a little gimmicky, but then I read the other sections/poems and started to suspect there is something else going on that I wasn't quite catching on a first read. Also: some of the best surrealism I've read in a very long time.

[Shannon]

“A year has gone by without her noticing—time does not flow smoothly here, / but grows in bunches like bananas.”

“When checkers are green and blue instead of red and black, they are a game / about the ocean and not a game about the war.”

[Emily]

Surreal and inventive. Extra points for dream-haunting cover.

[Valerie]

i liked the whale one best, also the forest

[Matthew]

Magic.

[Brooks Sterritt]

Ridiculoid.

[Sara Renberg]

I have a feeling I will be rereading this on a regular basis. I'm impressed and delighted by these poems.

[Nathan Albright]

I must admit I'm not a particular fan of the author's writing from what I had previously read, but this book of poetry is at least passable.  It is quirky and at least moderately intriguing contemporary poetry [1], and that has to count for something.  This book of poetry does not exactly have a high bar to clear, and it is not something that is going to be truly compelling to those who have read genuinely wonderful contemporary poets, but at the same time this book at least has some good reason to exist.  It is worth appreciating as a modest collection of passable lines with entertaining titles.  And as someone who reads a fair amount of poetry that is something worthwhile.  This book does not actively waste one's time even if it is not a book that is likely to have any sort of lasting success, as those who read it in future decades as something kitschy and a bit try-hard.  There are worse things to be, though, so this book does not inspire any sort of massive hostility or hatred on my part.  The book is rather sort of there and you can read it and shrug at it and get some mild amusement out of a few of the poems, perhaps.

This short book of poems is less than 100 pages and consists of three sections that are given the titles of their three large opening poems, followed by shorter poems with quirky titles.  The first section is titled "When We Move Away From Here, You'll See A Clean Square Of Paper Where His Picture Hung," which deals strangely with Popeye the sailor man.  The second section of the book is titled:  "The Cartoon's Mother Builds A House In Hammerspace," and the third book of the title is given the mercifully short title of "The Quickening."  As one can imagine, the book is full of quirky inside pop culture references, and some of the poems have genuine wit like "Fig. 1" and "The Front Half And The Back Half Of A Horse In Conversation" and "The History Of The House Where You Were Born."  It is clear that the author was viewed fondly by at least some magazines who published her poem, but one wonders what sort of context these poems are best to be appreciated in, given that they are clearly not as good as the best of poems that are written right now.

In many ways I'm not the best person to appreciate a book like this.  As a contemporary poet myself, my own inspiration is in far classier works that demonstrate intellectual depth and thinking about what is timeless and lasting.  This selection of poems, and nearly everything I have read by this poetess, is focused on being trendy and decadent, and as we are on very different sides of the approach of contemporary poets to the particular time and culture we are in, this book is not very appealing to me.  That said, it is not at least an active waste of my time.  There are some poems I appreciate at least mildly and more than a few lines that demonstrate the author has some talent at stringing together words in interesting ways, so there is that.  If you have a high degree of fondness for poetry that is deliberately quirky and self-consciously odd and that tends to slavishly follow contemporary social trends, you very well could like this book of poetry quite a great deal more than I did, but as for me, I neither love nor hate this book to any great degree.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

[J.]

Quick Review: These poems read like the textual equivalent of "The Persistence of Memory": the realism of what appears melts into sublimely surreal images (for which Lockwood has a unique gift). The poems are a rumination of creativity/the creative process and the power of imagination. In a way, this collection reminds me on one level (tone? exploration of the fantastic?) of the (also very different) prose poems of Calvino's _Invisible Cities_. I think the similarity is rooted in how Lockwood (like Calvino) takes the ordinary, and gives the reader alternate worlds of something quite familiar. Of the entire collection, I liked "The Quickening," "Fig. 1," "The Cartoon's Mother Builds a House in Hammerspace," and "Old Green America Says I Grew a Law Last Night" perhaps the most.

[Stuart]

A delightful collection of poems that playfully, ocassionally heartbreakingly, substitutes the image for the real (or the absent for the real, or the real for the image. These poems are at once hyperfocused (see generally the cycle on Popeye as a drawn figure) and meandersome, with startling imagery, abrupt shifts of phase and shockingly good closing lines. I very much enjoyed these poems and cannot wait to pick up everything Ms. Lockwood writes.

[Colin]

Like if memes and poetry got together and had a really annoying baby.

Second time trying to read this. I still feel like if I were to catch myself in the right mood I might get into it but I'm just not vibing at all. I at least managed to finish it this time but I found it a bit up itself.

I preferred her novel.

[Bradley]

I really enjoyed Lockwood’s prose, so I thought I’d give her poetry a try. I found this book uneven - some powerful stuff, some word salad. Perhaps my expectations are too high, or perhaps that’s just always the way with poetry. Despite my “average” rating, I’ll try Motherland in hope of finding more of the voice I loved in Priestdaddy and Nobody is Talking.

[Brian]

I honestly didn't like any of these poems, except "The Quickening," which I loved so much that it was worth the entire book. Also, the poet drew a lovely image of Popeye as the Pope for me when she signed the book, which I appreciate immensely. I wish I enjoyed more of the poems, but alas.

[Jessica]

Quick read. Surreal, and playful... I'm not really one for poetry, unfortunately, and there are few collections that can really hold my interest. I did enjoy this one, and am giving it a 3 just for being original. But I can't say that I would pick it up again anytime soon.

[Steven Peck]

Not easily accessible poetry, the the beauty and flow of the language shines through on every page.