Veronica Bench

by Leopoldine Core

Poetry. "Leopoldine never—as we used to say—'cops out.'"—Sparrow

"I like that Leopoldine's last name is Core because that is what her poems essential (like heaven on earth) and ephemeral (as in apple core). Her talent's in world-making, conjuring dialogic, chimeric moods that dust up an effet-monde only to let it drop casually, a strip-club curtain. Her zen-archery ease with poetry almost lets you forget how hard it really is to write like to be 'gutting with text' one's visions—writing not *about* God & sex but simply writing them. Her fluctuating registers and the sweet, cocky, somewhat lapidary sense of space on the page make me think of Han Shan or St. Giraud of the Naomi Poems. Core should write forever."—Ana Božičević

"Leopoldine is not afraid to be funny, but her jokes have friction."—Sparrow

"'It's important, you know,' Core writes, 'for geniuses / to be sloppy / It makes other people brave.' Well, I rolled around in her slop and found an ecstatic, fleshy tenderness. I wanted to lose whole days touching myself and reverting to my egg beginnings. Of course, these poems made me love her, made me think I was the only person in the world to ever fall in love this way. In VERONICA BENCH Core exposes us, out-greeds us, jokes freely with us and speaks better than us. You should be bathing with these poems, you should rub up against them, you should examine your own monstrosity more, you should dote on your pain, you should be ashamed you ever were ashamed of being meat, you should let others record your girlhood, your infancy, your fullness, you should stop trying to be a better person before you die, you should read this book until it's memorized and then we can all be blissed out in its captivity."—Jenny Zhang

"It's hard to read these poems without falling in love—at least for an afternoon—with Leopoldine. She isn't speaking so much as flying."—Sparrow

Genres: Poetry

170 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2015

About the author

Leopoldine Core is the author of the poetry collection Veronica Bench and the story collection When Watched, which won a Whiting Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in The Paris Review, PEN America, Apology Magazine, The American Poetry Review, Bomb and The Best American Short Stories, among others. She has taught at NYU and Columbia University.

Reviews

[Gus · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are so tender and gross. So much of this book made me feel so much better about evvvvvvveeeerrrryyythinnnnggggg s2g. From the poem entitled Fountain:

"Protecting your legacy
it's fetishy

Like living
at the museum
of your body.

Eating your own corpse.

I don't want
to curate my death
or yours.
So please

say
something
dumb

It's important, you know
for geniuses
to be sloppy

It makes other people brave."

I feel braver. I feel like casting myself into The Pit. I can't believe a human wrote this. It's too human. It's like the humanity you only notice sometimes, in brief glimpses and slips, because everyone is freaking out trying to find a way to hide it, but Leopoldine Core is like "Look at that sweaty weird flesh ball" and then you're like I love everythinggggggggggg as you literally fly off the rails in slow motion towards death sorry for being extra but seriously! Read these poems!

[Emily Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could only have one book to read for the rest of my life I would choose this one and would be perfectly content.