Rocket Fantastic: Poems

by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Like nothing before it, Rocket Fantastic transfigures the landscape and language of gender and the body. Its poems are populated by figures both familial and fabular: a prodigal brother and a relentless father; the Hermit, Dowager, and Major General; and, perhaps most strikingly, the Bandleader, embodiment of sexual, capitalistic, and political dominance. Mythic and musical, erogenous yet wide-eyed, this is a dazzling book by a space-age troubadour of American poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Literature

96 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2017

About the author

Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart and Apocalyptic Swing. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award for Emerging Women Writers, the Bernard F. Conners Prize from the Paris Review, and the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. She is Editor at Large for Los Angeles Review of Books and Assistant Professor and Walker Percy Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I mean, just wow. This book is simply magical.

I recently finished Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, and there's something about this collection that reminds me deeply of it - the future nostalgia, in a way, and the way Calvocoressi writes about the forest. This book is full of strange characters, and you never quite grasp what's going on. But somehow, that's ok. It's such a beautiful exploration of gender and family and all the things that makes life strange, and I don't even think I fully have words for it. Just perfection, honestly.

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calvocoressi is one of my favorite poets, and this collection doesn’t disappoint. Equal parts fierce and tender, dreamy and knockdown real.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, passionate poems. Not only erotic but also sensual. The pronouns took me a while to get used to (I need more practice) but the language carried me along.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I've never been a big poetry person. My standard for it has always been "I like this! It sounds nice!" or "I just don't get it." This semester, I'm taking a poetry writing class for a requirement for my English major and my view has completely shifted. I have a new appreciation for poetry, the potential fluidity of its structure and the unknown/vague feelings that may come with poetry. My professor specifically recommended me this book for an essay we'll be writing about a poetry collection of our choice and I am so glad they did because I absolutely am in love with this book. Calvocoressi is a brilliant story-teller and doesn't shy away from those uncomfortable images and feelings which is exactly what I love in fiction and what I have come to love in reading poetry. I especially love the fluidity of the Bandleader and the explorations of gender, the body, and our relationships with other people. So so good

[boocia]

really impressive symbolism and imagery. i love how the poems all tie into each other; calvocoressi creates a mythos -- of Bandleader, 8 point stags, null points, etc. they tie their love and father trauma and brother love and gender dysphoria all together into a full biography which is just sick.

that being said i don't think i actually like, *felt* blown away by these poems; not in that they were too cerebral, i think they just weren't really my taste; i'm not a mythical fantasy fairy forest guy, which is the main conceit i think. so that's just me being boring i guess.

i'd recommend it to others !

[M. Gaffney · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are dark stars.

[Amie Whittemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is actually as good as everyone makes it out to be. Queer spectacular.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calvocoressi is a talented and innovative poet who produced a collection that constantly surprised me. Her collection follows several narrators all bound by an appreciation for and an interaction with nature. Falcons, locusts, grasses, forests, and stars all bind these poems in a lovely sort of mess. Calvocoressi flits through familial, romantic, and sexual relationships with tenderness and intimacy. The collection follows the stories of a family and a a person's relationship to a charismatic and mysterious Bandleader. The poems tend to center around the body and gender of various characters especially the narrator. I started to read this book about a month ago and found it fairly difficult, on my second go around, I sat down on a sunny afternoon, plugged away and fell in love. Calvocoressi's prose is gentle, affirming, and at times, stunning. Great stuff for readers interested in gender and sexuality.

[Madeline Riske · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I wrote: Grieve. Because we're all so busy
Aren't we? And so broke. I needed to make
an appointment with my anguish, so I could
take my mind off buying groceries
that I really couldn't afford"

That's just a line I really liked--most of the images are not quite as concrete and I enjoyed that too. I loved how this collection felt whimsical in the way it explored gender, identity, and a mystical forest. I didn't quite know what was happening but in a good way!!

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to snag a galley of this at DPI! This books was wow. What a collection of weird, scintillating (and occasionally violent) poems! The use of the special symbol was so cool. I loved the recurring themes and the author's ability to paint a scene in each poem with unique language/word choice.

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and brave and true. I adored this book. It truly is like nothing else I've read, and I know reading it changed me in the way books, especially poetry books, sometimes do.

[Tara♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Review to follow if I can manage to convey my feelings into words.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kolbe Osarchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful little universe & I’ll always hate the bandleader

[Ross Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

really like... 4 1/2 stars. really interesting imagery and perspective on gender.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the poetry, and I also love the poet. I watched a Q&A and poetry reading by them and they're honestly so nice and positive and it made me so happy to see them be happy.

[RJ Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sun Got All Over Everything

Over the boys and girls by the pool,
over the bougainvillea, which got so hot
my palms stayed warm for minutes after.
It made a mess of a day
that was supposed to be the worst
and lured me outside so I forgot her death entirely.
And also the polar bears scrambling
on the ice chips. And also that there was no water
in the Golden State. The pool was full
and the sun poured across the women's bodies
so you had to shade your eyes. Or I did. I had to
put my hand up to see what they were saying.
I know it's no excuse. And I had made a plan
to cry all day

and into the evening. I marked in my book,
which seems like something I'd make up in a poem
except this time I actually did it.
I wrote: Grieve. Because we're all so busy
aren't we? And so broke. I needed to make
an appointment with my anguish, so I could
take my mind off buying groceries
that I really couldn't afford. Anyway.
I didn't mean to go outside except there
the sky was, just ridiculously blue,
taunting me with pigment that I felt
the need to name. And from somewhere
close by a voice I couldn't see because the sun
was like a yolk cracked over it said,

What are you drinking? And I said,
I'm grieving. I'm very busy remembering.
I made an appointment because last year
I forgot and then felt awful. The sun opened
its mouth and made a gong of the canyons.

It poured across the girls and slicked across
their Dior lenses. I put my tongue on it
exactly when I should have been tearing
at my clothes and lighting candles.
I got on top and let it find the tightness
in my back and open where my wings would
be. Somewhere my mother was dying
and someone was skinning a giraffe.
And I let it go. I just let it go.

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know how to pick poetry.
I know what I like when I read it but beforehand I am basically digging around a giant pool of possibilities. I choose by what I think of the vague description, at this point try to avoid anything that could be Instagram style poetry, then the title and sometimes the cover. "Rocket Fantastic" ended up with me mostly for the cover, I love this cover, and of course that's not a good reason to choose a book but honestly, it is so hard for me to pick poetry. And yeah, this was a miss.

For the most part these poems either fell flat or went over my head (and maybe the ones that I say fell flat eluded me, too). I liked that there was an ongoing sort-of narrative that connected many of the poems, that is an interesting way to do a collection, I have not experienced it quite like this before. But when I don't really understand most of these poems, an ongoing narrative string doesn't add anything for me. There are reappearing images, Calvocoressi plays around interestingly with the concept of gender: there is stuff happening, it just wasn't for me. Looking at other reviews, a lot of people respond positively to these, which only seems to prove my point that poetry is such a subjective genre.

The only piece that really worked for me was "[Dad and I, we went up to the mountains]", this one did something for me, I took something away from it which I cannot say for anything else in here.
The use of language left me feeling indifferent to it, and I like to play around with language in poetry. I don't have much to say, it didn't work for me.

1.5*

[Kerstin Tuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabrielle Calvocoressi's collection Rocket Fantastic features impeccable cover design with surreal and stunning poems to match. Ranging in mood from somber to spectacular, the collection is a meditation on the body, gender, family, and those things that tie people together. Calvocoeressi utilizes the musical symbol of the segno as a pronoun for the Bandleader, representing "a confluence of genders in varying degrees, not either/or nor necessarily both in equal measure" (xi). In turning to the realm of signs and symbols, Calvocoressi quite literally creates a new vocabulary for gender unrepresented by language. Interestingly, the figure of the segno looks similar to Lacan's symbol for the subject.

Varying greatly in form throughout the collection, Calvocoressi's comfortably switches between prose poems and heavily lineated, disjointed lines as in "I like it when [segno] touch me there, right above the forehead." In a continuing story arc, several poems are titled "Major General," appearing to apostrophes to a certain family member, just as all the poems containing the segno symbol address the figure she refers to as the Bandleader. Calvocoressi's ability to weave a narrative thread between poems and the spaces between poems is truly masterful. More than just repeating subjects, poem clusters that share subjects share forms, visually separating thematic groups for readers.

[Carl Waluconis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is her second book of poems, and it is exciting, with a theme revolving around the somewhat mysterious Bandleader. The poems are very personal and you feel you are genuinely getting to know the poet:
I needed to make
an appointment with my anguish so I could
take my mind off buying groceries
that I really couldn’t afford.
At the same time, she offers advice on negotiating life. "Keep your eyes shut and say it to yourself and imagine. A voice different than yours. Let the sun come up inside your mind." I look forward to reading more of her words. There was one poem different than the rest, "Some Thoughts on Building the Atomic Bomb," that was especially arresting, looking at her relationship with science established in public school and examining science's role in our lives. It was deceptively simple and straight forward while examining major issues in the context of our lives.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made it most of the way through before this was due back to the library. Really enjoyed this. The most questionable thing was the use of the invented pronoun for the Bandleader character (which I would imagine to have been the hardest decision Calvocoressi had to make in writing these poems). It felt a little over the top to me, and made it hard to read some of the poems; it was just really difficult to imagine it being voiced (I'd love to see the author read from this book). But at the same time, the Bandleader whoseself is a little over the top, and using the pronoun lended whose a mythic quality that may have been hard to achieve by more conventional means. The fact that I'm entertaining it at all speaks to the skill with which it was done. And it wasn't, thankfully, in every poem, and the non-Bandleader poems were lovely and heartbreaking. Recommended.

[Skylar Wampler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rocket Fantastic is an adult novel about surviving toxic relationships, gender, sex, life, and the darker side of the psyche. All of this is done so well. I’ve read Rocket Fantastic so many times and every single time it teaches me something new and wonderful. Calvolcoressi decided to create a masterpiece of mystery and love and lust with this collection. The lover's gender is never revealed, denoted only by a symbol that is read by a sharp inhalation of breath, which is one of the most beautiful ways to explore gender that I have found thus far. With beautiful and repetitive cycles found throughout the collection, it’s a treasure hunt and a narrative that pieces itself together as you explore more and more of the poetry. Gorgeous collection. Do not read if you are easily offended, struggle with those who are gender non-conforming or are apprehensive about the concept of sex.

[Jeremy Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinary collection. I read it all in a single afternoon as I came to recognize that it would reward a fast read while trying to sustain it all in my memory for a few hours; and I very much enjoyed the emotional resonance afterwards, much like the sound of holding the pedal down on the piano for a whole piece and listening to it all fade away, for as long as it takes. But it’s also clear these poems would reward closer reading. The mood is one of biblical grandeur, pagan imagery, & gender fluidity, set against a distinctively American childhood, and romantic & erotic encounters with this mysterious Bandleader, whose pronoun is a fairly meaningless signifier appropriated from standard music notation. I think this one will resonate for a long time.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was originally purchased for the intersectionality class I took last semester, but was taken off the syllabus. I'm really glad I still read it though. The poems I really liked are "The Sun Got All Over Everything," "Major General," "Some Thoughts on Building the Atom Bomb," and "In the Darkness of the House of Pleasure."

While I liked the collection pretty well over all, there were a couple things I found strange, such as the method through which the author chose to communicate the ambiguity of the bandleader's gender. I understood the purpose, but found the use of "whose" and *untypable symbol* in the place of pronouns clunky and hard to read, causing me to like the poems with those the least.

[Joanne Rixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complex, organic, astronomical, lovely. Each poem and linking interstitial section builds on the previous, creating a mystery/narrative about childhood, growing up, family relationships, love and selfhood.

from "The Sun Got All Over Everything":
The sun opened
its mouth and made a gong of the canyons.

It poured across the girls and slicked across
their Dior lenses. I put my tongue on it
exactly when I should have been tearing
at my clothes and lighting candles.
I got on top and let it find the tightness
in my back and open where my wings would
be. Somewhere my mother was dying
and someone was skinning a giraffe.
And I let it go. I just let it go.

[kell_xavi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a few of the poems, but I wasn’t expecting and wasn’t interested in the military themes or conversational narrative. Didn’t open or cohere for me.

Shave, The Sun Got All Over Everything, Fox, and I Had a Mane Once each have astonishing moments as they take on subjects of grief, bodies, and animals in confrontation with people.

I was excited about the gender prospects implied by the Bandleader’s pronouns and “a body… unlimited in its possibilities.” Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by its application. I liked Angel Position, but the relationship conceit was limiting in many others.

[Steven Critelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book of poetry that delves deeper under the skin and into the bones of family and love relationships than any other contemporary poetry book I have read. While the fluidity of gender and persona initially attracted critical comment, the structure of the various poetic forms to signal particular narratives and voices is the key to the spell it casts over the reader. Virtually every "poem" in the volume works individually and as an integral part of the whole of this masterpiece. It has taken me too long to get to this book, but I feel privileged to have finally bathed in its grace.

[Ezra Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Energetic and exploratory, Rocket Fantastic is an imperfect patchwork--sometimes a calm and intentional smoothing of kaleidoscopic urge and emotion, processed, and not...and sometimes a re-rolled celebration and amplification of that inexplicable kaleidoscope. Gaby's newest collection is full of life and unknowing and the fine, peaceful tension of an artist made the wiser by the process of capturing life in her craft.

[J.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

...The sun opened
its mouth and made a gong of the canyons.

It poured across the girls and slicked across
their Dior lenses. I put my tongue on it
exactly when I should have been tearing
at my clothes and lighting candles.
I got on top and let it find the tightness
in my back and open where my wings would
be. Somewhere my mother was dying
and someone was skinning a giraffe.
And I let it go. I just let it go.

—“The Sun Got All Over Everything”

[Rebecca Valley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very intrigued both by the use of the pronouns here (and what my brain did with them) and also by the narratives of a not-so-ancient fantastical past. Very much enjoyed all of the animals, mythic and halfway mythic and perfectly common. I want to read this one again to get more familiar with the various narrative thread going on, but even without that clear understanding of who is who precisely I feel connected to these poems for their tenderness and their sincerity and their magic.