DOWN

by Sarah Dowling

How can we carve private spaces from discarded publics?

DOWN takes junk language – with cameos by Frank O’Hara, Frank Ocean, Aaliyah and the Temptations – and flattens it until we’re living in the same environment. Disorientation and defamiliarization yank fresh feeling from banal sentiments in this playful collection.

‘I’ve believed in Dowling’s poems for a long time with you. Or maybe you’re just now catching up to how the genius is working her machine on our minds? Gravity of letter in the word measured and dispensed with inimitable grace. The words are familiar, yes, but we get them again from this magnificent poet who is not going to let us just trample the smallest of them. I have tremendous respect for any poet who strives to be even half as great as Sarah Dowling.’
– CAConrad

‘After all of the previous avant-garde’s perpetual rediscoveries of Gertrude Stein's formal innovations, Dowling reminds us that her best poetry was, above all, sexy. Where Dowling surpasses is in her recognition of the phatic, the emphatic, the obsessive understanding of the cultural syntax of infatuation. Everything in DOWN is palpably cloudy in its thick description: I am starstruck.’
– Craig Dworkin

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2014

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to say that Down is best characterized by its repetition. After all, there is repetition both in the text (repetition of titles, repetition of words and phrases...) and in the structure the collection takes (the book is divided into six parts, and each of those parts begins with a poem, followed by a sequence of poems or prose poems... with variations). But upon reading the poet's statement in the "Process Notes" at the end of the book, I had to rethink my opinion...

Gertrude Stein said she was inclined to believe that there is no such thing as repetition, only insistence. Frank O'Hara said that what was happening to him went into his poems. This was insistence but with more anxiety.
This was happening to me. I was interested in the way the lines became so tense and upset. I was interested in the ways they set of funny little moments of recognition....

- Process Notes, pg. 83-84

Down is divided into six parts: "Everybody Looks Alike, And Acts Alike, And We're Getting More And More That Way", "I Think Everybody Should Be A Machine", "I Think Everybody Should Like Everybody", "Yes. It's Liking Things", "Yes, Because You Do The Same Thing Every Time", and "You Do It Over And Over Again". I admire Dowling's innovative style, and I appreciate the sentiment of what she is saying ("everybody looks alike and acts alike and we're getting more and more that way" - need I say more?)

from "Everybody Looks Alike, And Acts Alike, And We're Getting More And More That Way"...

I'm talking Cause I really
can't tell me are you grey
Say Cause I really Tell me
I'm not
If I can't tell I hope I'm talking
listen Cause I really need Tell me are you

really Tell me are you lonely
I'm not And Is it wet, Is it Cause
If I If I
can't tell you're real I hope that we'll Oh
Boy see I shouldn't let you but
Won't you If you tell you know
Cause I really Tell me are

you that somebody Cause I'm
not but just Day yes You
can't tell me Are you
talking you shouldn't but if I
if I let you go We talk
But don't know see if I promise you then

Can you

- I've Got To Tell You, pg. 7

*

I've got yes. I've got this. I've got anxious. I've got serenity. I've got our existence. Of course disarray never included us. I've got sunshine. I've got an occupying attention. I may refer to, must inherently. I've got any. I've got any compulsive relationship, Sunshine.

- Sunshine Honey, pg. 8

from "I Think Everybody Should Be A Machine"...

Can you Can you Can you Can
I promise you If we talk and you know
But see
I don't know if I
shouldn't tell but if
I let you can't I'm talking Are you
I'm not lonely just Say yes

or say no Cause I really Tell me are
you wet Oh
Boy Won't you If you tell you know
that I shouldn't let you but
If I can't tell I hope
I'm not Is it Is it Cause I really
Tell me are you that

somebody listen Cause I really Tell me are
you can't
tell me I'm talking if that's
difficult I hope I'm not
lost just Say Is it Cause I really Tell me are you that
somebody Cause I really You can't

tell I'm talking further

- I've Got To Tell You, pg. 23

*

Sometimes I'm the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager liking youLike the buses glow like clouds and I am lonely hawk in a skyThat flies andYou were my hold you in my heart with a very real prey (my prey) sat there and told my friend how I felt

- Everyone Sleep, pg. 24

from "I Think Everybody Should Like Everybody"...

m-hm
bury it

and then you're not even
sure I // I think if

well
well

If something // something is either
the burial is gonna have to be //
m-hm
gonna be safe

or maybe even // maybe you can
bu it doesn't seem
possibly m-hm

Well,
I really // I really
don't know

- Bury It, pg. 33

*

playing away against Sunshine
travel

) -

found under a bridge

burns a large house fire in the
beaches and water and

- Brush, pg. 34

from "Yes. It's Liking Things"...

and then
you're not even
sure if it's // um that
the place you bury it

it
can probably be
safe

for what? something //

something is either a half or three
quarters and
you cannot guarantee that
anything is gonna be

safe

at least I don't think
or maybe even // maybe
you can but it doesn't seem I

really // I really don't

- Bury It, pg. 53

*

best in this. close

operation once again under her WHITE area
glimpse through control The best place to take making
head in the wing also struggling (it has been
raining traffic through the South the South
port of - unveil. spearheading the terror's
structure like the rural direct opposition
hawks once again taking under her

- Brush, pg. 54

from "Yes, Because You Do The Same Thing Every Time"...

Cause I really can't
Say is it Cause I really Tell me
I'm not
I hope
listen Cause I really Tell me are you

really Tell me are you Won't you And
if I'm not wet,
If I If I can't tell

Oh

Tell me

are you empty I'm not just Say


yes
Can you Can you Can you

- I've Got To, pg. 63

*

Can I boy under you honey

m-hm

Can you tell everyone I should brush against this maroon starlight and save the robe Can I bury the songs and the morning the grey sunshine the fire and what I sometimes prey and what you right now

m-hm

how I honey

m-hm

- The Safe M-hm, pg. 64

from "You Do It Over And Over Again"...

Can you Can you

promise If I and you know

you shouldn't but
I let you

I'm not lonely just

say no Cause I really are

you Og If

If If

tell me are you Won't you

listen Cause I really Tell me are you
If

if

If

- I've Got You, pg. 71

*

Number one is mornings
Number two is my coast
Number three is my sunshine
Number four is my feel

Number five is my girl
Number six is that somebody
Number seven is naughty
Number eight is my girl

Number nine is my mouth
Number ten is grey
Number eleven is my feel
Number twelve or tea

Number thirteen is that somebody
Number fourteen is noiseless
Number fifteen is hot enough
Number sixteen tell nobody

...

- Morning, pg. 72

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of things that I really, really appreciate about this book: the cohesiveness of the collection taking precedence over the individual poems; the experimental nature of all of the pieces; and the musical poems that gave the book a kind of unavoidable compulsive soundtrack. That stuff is all incredibly cool, and at various times I was predicting a four- or possibly even five-star rating.

There's a bit too much that seems detached and beyond, though. I found myself struggling to grasp even superficial meaning on some of the pages. I don't discourage any writer from trying new things, but also I feel that it's okay for experiments not to completely work they way they are intended. I have a feeling that this is a case where I'll likely be a fan of other works of this poet, but some of these specific poems just didn't do anything for me. I still recommend the collection because of how many unique and interesting things it attempts—some of the early poems in the book have certainly inspired me to try new things—but on the whole it's not a group of poems that will stay with me.

[Louis Cabri]

"m-hm"