Begging for It

by Alex Dimitrov

In his debut collection of poems, Begging for It, Alex Dimitrov leads us through the streets, bridges, and bedrooms of New York City, sometimes as far away as Buenos Aires and Iceland, and as close as our own darkest corners. A Bulgarian immigrant, Dimitrov writes as both observer of and fervent participant in this "American Youth," as his speakers navigate both the physical and emotional landscapes of desire, intimacy, and longing--whether for a friend, a lover, or a self, "Saint or stranger, I still recklessly seek you."

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT

79 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2013

About the author

Alex Dimitrov is the author of three books of poems, including Love and Other Poems, as well as the chapbook American Boys. His work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Poetry. He was the former senior content editor at the Academy of American Poets, where he edited Poem-A-Day and American Poets. He has taught creative writing at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Barnard College, among other institutions. With Dorothea Lasky, he is the co-author of Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac. Dimitrov lives in New York.

Reviews

[Rodney]

Dimitrov writes with a remarkable directness of address and clarity of sentiment. The poems move with the ease of prose; in fact, if you smooshed the stanzas together, you might make a case for this being “cut-up prose”, except the cuts are so elegant and right they reminded me a little of a couturier’s line, each poem an assertion of hang and fit against the generous emotional volume.

[Anatoly Molotkov]

"This must be the part of the story where you// refuse to say how the bodies you've walked toward/ continue walking in you." Alex Dimitrov's work is wise and compassionate; I love the tenderness and the openness these lines are infused with.

[Chase]

A friend, a professor of poetry, recommended Alex Dimitrov's Begging for It (2013) for its exquisite attention to pleasure: particularly Dimitrov's sensualist techniques.

Begging for It is a larger collection of Dimitrov's poems published widely in well-known journals, including the American Poetry Review, the Boston Review, the Gay & Lesbian Review, and The Yale Review, among numerous others. Dimitrov's work is widely influenced by classical poetics and literature, which is reflected in many of his titles (e.g. "Self-Portrait as Brett in The Sun Also Rises"), and sympathizes with Wilde, Ginsburg, and Borges.

The collection is split into five sections, delineations of which aren't necessarily clear, but provide a comforting movement from youth to an infinite loss-of-self in sex and desire. Though many of the poems felt tangentially related, the start and ending, especially, progressed the collection from youth into a sort of "loss of innocence," though the author would never admit to this. By far, my favorite, "Night Flights," reveals Dimitrov's skilled preoccupation with image and movement. Others, including "Sensualism," "White Fire," "Red Desert," and "Darling," stood out as exceptionally independent, thoughtful, and suggestive improvements upon the modern preponderance of viseral attraction.

Begging for It receives four stars for its sheer originality, its commitment to creative thought, and its intoxicating imagery. Alas, the author tried even a bit too hard to incorporate a number of poems (in section three, specifically) that detracted from the collection's intentions. Nonetheless, Dimitrov deserves the praise he's received, as, for instance, Mark Doty writes: "Dimitrov's passionate, headlong poems seem to want to carve beneath the surface of gestures, beneath the skin, to the warm and dangerous blood beneath"; indeed, "[This] is a fierce and memorable debut."

[Amanda Wells]

On my recent poetry renaissance, I googled "new contemporary poets" and came up with a few names to look into. Alex Dimitrov was one. I read a few of his poems online and then IMMEDIATELY bought Begging for It. NO REGRETS. (Or, as the kids say, #noregrets).

I really enjoyed Dimitrov's earnest voice, and the range of his subject matter and allusions. He doesn't sound as young as he is (no youth isn't inherently a bad thing, but I am always wary of the cliché of the angsty teenaged poet), and more than one of these had me crying.

I would recommend (and I have) reading this book if you are interested in some contemporary poetry. Also if you want to get hit in the feels a few times.

[Elena]

I'm Always Thinking About You, America
A way for us to begin when beginnings have passed us.
Before you saw him you knew exactly where you wanted to put your hands.
Casually, the light in that room became what you remembered of summer.
Days of slow mornings, days of nothing but nights.
Even in a time like ours, war ends and love too.
For now I will write about love.
Going every day to that place in you that is homeless.
How quiet you were the first time you saw your mother cry.
I'm always here, yes, writing or thinking about you.
Just like that it was autumn and not spring for a long time.
Kindness was somewhere in his hands, how they shook after crossing the border.
Listening to Glass and then Brahms to feel changed, suddenly.
Mundane pleasures: coffee, orgasm, a walk down First Street.
Nights that return in the daytime and you need to sit down.
Oh I want to stop here, what more can I tell you?
President Clinton on television while we were children.
Quietly typing in a square of light in a room where you lived while people died.
Reason is not needed with us, he said.
So, "I want to know who you are," who the "I," who the "we" is.
Today I am returning to everyone at least once in my mind.
Until I die I want to keep telling Rachel I love her.
Voices in the house where you grew up in an afternoon, in one gaze.
What do we look for when we say, "Where are you going right now?"
Хохохохо X
Years that pass fast and slowly through us.
Zero apologies today but of course, there were things we did and didnt do.

[Joyce]

I really loved Dimitrov's later work so when I went back and found this debut collection I was excited to see where it all started! I enjoyed this too, and it's cool to see the beginnings of themes that he's still interested in writing about today. Towards the end of the book I definitely started finding more and more poems that I enjoyed - there's a tendency in some of these earlier poems to have that classic Alex Dimitrov tone without as much heart/meaning as I usually find in later works. Definitely want to buy a copy of this to mark up still. I find it so interesting how Dimitrov jumps between his own work and referencing others so fluidly.

[H]

Vulnerable, a little pretentious, rooted in pop culture which I usually hate but it worked (yikes, that James Franco poem didn't age well).

Favorites:
Vulnerability
Sleeping with Everyone
The Underwear
Suit & Tie, 6'1, Married, Financial District

[wulvz]

God. I thought I was going to die without ever finding a poet that could speak to me as deeply as Richard Siken could in “Crush”. Now I have Dimitrov (because a cool and awesome friend put me onto his work). His vulnerability is succeeding Siken’s and it’s scaring me (he’s so fucking wonderful read everything he has ever made please please please)

[Claire Eichman]

This book is kind of hollow but I guess okay-pretty-good. I'm not into the flurry of pop culture references (come on, James Franco, nu-uh, he is not worth a poem).

[Dana]

this is a book that is clearly about everything about the author and manages to only be about 2 topics
and yes i love dimitrov and paid for one month of his substack with dorothea lange
i read this book at a playground on the upper west side after running into aava
someone said: find an author you like and read their whole corpus, so i did, this was the last of dimitrov’s books i hadn’t read yet — and i think the last time i read him i was sitting in union square; new york poet
jennifer coolidge said read bad work, then you can do anything
carmen maria machado said you only get to debut once and that will be the book of your life until then
genre-wise, this is a debut

[Dania]

A collection of desire. Of want, of what warrants want, of why want warrants desire, and desire sings at the core of the book.
Thoroughly enjoyed.

“Before I leave here, I want
to hear my name change in the mouth
of another animal.
Let it take long.”

A sizzling of sexual nature served in a platter of— you guessed it, desire.

“In the first poem I wrote after you left, I killed you.
My hand met the back of your neck and lead you to water, where I held your hair—under—one last time.”

[kate hayes]

Kind of a shame his best book was the first. I love this!


Bloodletting


The gods have no choice
but to let us live a little—

they would die for comedy.
You and I today, we’re like bad actors

in a black and white Fellini movie.
If you can’t show red, why bother filming?

The scene where the boys undress
and color the river with sex

is useless, like bloodletting.
And the pistons of the heart, the heart—

aren’t pumping fast enough
to let us feel this thrashing.

[V.S.]

sections I, III, & IV were my favorites. section II felt more diary-esque - which is neither good nor bad - just didn't seem to fit overall with the tone of the other sections. but perhaps that was the point. in any case, i love this artist's work & can't wait to read more & develop a more nuanced understanding of the work :)

[Ellis Billington]

There is such a strong physicality and presence in this collection that I absolutely adored. Reading the poems, I felt like I was there right alongside the author, walking city streets and lounging in bedrooms, desiring and longing. I’ll definitely be returning to this poetry collection soon, and would love to read more by this author.

[Nicole Cooper]

Beautiful collection of poetry.

[Nora Rawn]

Vivid, sensual, yearning; about being a child, being an immigrant, being queer; about loving one's literary predecessors and loving desire

[Eva]

This book received a four star rating from me because Dimitrov included a poem about James Franco, and I really wish he hadn't (kidding, mostly). Otherwise, this is a remarkable debut from a young writer who is very well connected with the big names in poetry--Anne Carson, Marie Howe, Frank Bidart.

I will say that I am looking forward to his forthcoming publications moreso than I enjoyed reading this book; his recent poems printed in the Poetry magazine and available to read online at the poetry foundation website are what drew me to his work and the poems in this collection are quite honestly not as strong as what he's working on right now. "Lines for People After the Party" is absolutely one of the best poems that I have read this year and it's why I went and bought this book online as soon as I could. Unfortunately, that poem and "Together and by Ourselves" are both recently published works and not included in this collection.

Regardless, Dimitrov stands out as a writer for his syntactical abilities, extraordinary voice, and emotional precision. He employs a dissociation from the self in such a way as to bring greater clarity back to the kinds of metaphysical questions that unsettle our basic conceptions of identity. For those reasons, I'm reminded a little of Olena Kalytiak Davis' first collection of poetry--And Her Soul Out of Nothing--which was awarded the Brittingham Prize in Poetry in '97 when Rita Dove was judging. It takes a lot to elicit from me a comparison with that book which is hands down my favorite book of poetry.

Overall, highly recommended.

[Patricia Murphy]

I longed for more range--reaching into a higher register, say, or less focus on beds and hotel rooms. Some of my favorite parts:

The world is not ending today
so it's important to stay in it.

Reader, are you upset at how fast we're moving?

This poem wants you to like it,
please click "like."

Why do teeth survive the body?

Tonight, I am the star of a surgery
where each organ is weighed in their hands.

[Samantha]

There's a refreshing vulnerability to this book that isn't seen much in contemporary poetry. Yes, the subject matter is harsh and a bit tragically honest, but Dimitrov's lines pack a clever punch (a memorable one, from To The Thirsty I Will Give Water: "We were given more than we can drown.") and don't over-explain themselves, resulting in quite an impressive debut collection.

[Jeremy]

Finally, someone whose poetry is current. I especially liked the poem Sensualism: "a mosquito presses into my skin / with such cruelty I mistake it for love." Best collection I've read in a while and I can't wait to see what this poet comes up with next.

[willowdog]

Sensual without being erotic. Youthful and somewhat dark that is sometimes stereotypical, but I found his hand alarmingly fresh and filled with a sense of place (from and the present). I'm a sucker for poetry with literary references.

[Luis Correa]

Fierce.

[Anne]

Deeply felt, lyrical beauty. Surprises line by line.

[Savannah]

4.5

[Eric R.]

Lyrical, cultural, self-possessed, maybe too stoic for its own good

[Gus]

I loved "A Second Heart Swims Up my Throat" a lot. And many others. Melissa Broder's review of this on HTML Giant is 1000x better than anything I could ever write. <3

[Andrew Pisaturo]

Alex's debut was more concise and focused than other works. Really like everything he does.

[Selena]

I could not stop reading. When it is good, it makes you cry. Sometimes though, it is just okay.