The Drunk Sonnets

by Daniel Bailey

From forgiveness in a beehive to tiny banquets for retired janitors, Daniel Bailey's fifty-three sonnets combine formal constraint with unfettered caterwauling. This is contemporary poetic sincerity that is not too shy to see the heart, to eat the heart, to carry a heart and hold it when it catches a shake.

Bailey's work has appeared in No Colony, Abraham Lincoln, NOÖ Journal, elimae, Opium Magazine and more. He is from Muncie, Indiana.

Genres: Poetry

53 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Goodreads is constantly assigning this account as the author of books I didn't write, which is fine. Whatever.

Reviews

[Ani Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each sonnet is line by line brilliant. Like proper drunks some lines love you man, some lines pick fights with you, some sing. All are incredibly vividly alive. All are love.

I talk to the author about booze and girls: http://www.writers-bloc.net/2009/10/2...

[Reb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised how much I liked this little book. I thought it was going to be all I stained my sheets and I don't even know why. But it was more than that. It was tender, in an obsessive ex kind of way.

[Carolyn Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

kind of amazing

[Reynard Seifert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Bailey does some really cool stuff in this collection. Even though he's like, a total asshole in real life - often found licking turd debris from his fingers like chocolate, or else staring into space with his mouth open, tongue slapping against his Adam's apple like some kind of freak show savant - he has made a really original collection of poems which bespeak the loneliness and isolation of a burrito-loving, 40-drinking, 20-something dude in Anytown, USA. He's a very clever guy, and poetic. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he's a clever poet. The all-caps makes it easy to read when you're as drunk as I am right now, and the cover looks good next to a pitcher of mimosas. I recommend it to everyone who likes to steal bottles of champagne from Lucky's.

[Biscuits · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection felt nice. Not in content or poetic excellent, but on being fun and sincere (unique?) and interesting. I don't mean interesting in the way some people mean interesting as "I don't get it" or "nice try." Interesting in this case means "Wow, I actually want to keep reading" and "good job, good point."

The use of all caps, for instance, is interesting. It feels like hanging out with a drunk friend. I think the whole book kind of feels that way. I think that is the point.

I bought this after hearing Dan read. His reading voice works well with his poetic voice.

Some favorites:
10
14
24
33

[Chuck Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never get over this. It's so good. I've begun reading them with my 8 year old daughter at bed time. She likes words like, "asshole," "turd," "cat litter," & "piss." But I'm hoping the other shit is sticking with her a bit. Stuff like, "BIRTHING A GHOST," "A SMALL TRIBE OF HALLELUJAHS," "FORGIVENESS IN A BEEHIVE" etc...

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned more ways to be awesome.

[crowjonah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve got decreasing (nonjudgmental) patience for drunkenness these days, but this book of heartsick poems totally won me over and reminded me of the occasional beauty of belligerence. It’s gleeful and sad and grandiose in the best way. Daniel saw me post a photo of the first edition cover, and, saint that he is, not wanting me to miss out on the added content in the second edition, sent me another copy! I’m doubly glad about the bonus book because the used copy I bought has extraordinarily inane annotations on every third poem (“weird wording,” “?,” “true,” “makes sense,” “sad,” and “he gave it his all.”) The nonsequitur and violent tendencies seem a product of the era (2012), but feel “earned” and so have aged better than I might have expected. Reading this, I felt very warmly toward Daniel, admiring of the longevity of his poetry-writing life (last year’s A Better Word for the World is also stellar), and inspired (based on my perception of his social media presence) by the way he seems to balance his work, family, and creative lives with integrity and honesty. I repeatedly thought to myself, “Daniel Bailey is a gem.”

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

i don't know why i gave my own book 5 stars. i feel shitty for having done so but that was more than a year ago (probably more like 3)

[Adam Moorad · Rating 5 out of 5]

frankly - a must read.

[Joe]

Man, Magic Helicopter does a good job making books I look forward to reading at the end of the day. Of all the sonnety "projects" I've read recently this is the only one I'm going to read again.

[Tyler Crumrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad I had to wait for the second edition's release to read this book. These poems let me know that I'm not alone. The concluding essay let me know that there is hope.

[Frances Dinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny meditation on depression and loneliness, once you get past the all caps.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Threw my heart against the wall. This is lovely.

[Jim Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

No review this time. Had too much to drink.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if this collection will become the next Wenderoth-esque project or not, but it's actually pretty fun-- I guess the conceit is that these are all sonnets written when Bailey was drunk (duh!). And though I don't know how true that is, it gives the sonnets, esp those in the first half of the book, a pleasant weird feel-- there is a noticeable lack of attention and focus as the best individual sonnets progress, as if a wild hair distracted Bailey and brought him someplace else. Or, as happens in other poems, the ending is the kind of sentimental thud that I think is also a consequence of drinking too much... In other words, these poems aren't great poems on their own, but they have a kind of recognizable sympathetic magic, capturing what drunkenness feels like. Mileage, or course, may vary.

Later poems, btw, get increasingly ragged-- the early quatrains and triplets devolve into a wider variety of stanza lengths, which might be considered more or less interesting-- for me, it might have lowered the bar too much to be really rewarding to read.

[Greg Ivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gist of this is it's a collection of all-caps poems written by a very drunk person. They sound drunk, and accurately so, the elation, the brilliant ideas, the shouting, the tears, the microwaveable burritos. And it's gimmicky, fine, I'll give you that but it's ok. Because they're also really beautiful and ugly at the same time, and they're your drunk friend who you love shouting about epiphanies, they're a drunk uncle sobbing at Thanksgiving, they're a neighbor you don't like stumbling down the hall telling you a joke that's actually hilarious, they're you drinking alone and sobbing because you hurt and feel amazing in oscillating frequencies.

It's good. You should read it.

I did not throw this book. I put it on the table so I can read it again.