Rouge Pulp

by Dorothy Barresi

Rouge Pulp explores notions of body and beauty, birth and death, in a contemporary America driven by its material plenty and spiritual lack. Dorothy Barresi writes about strippers, hair salons, cancer, good credit ratings, cockfights, childbirth, maternal love, war. Her poems take the world’s brutal vitality as their music, and they refuse to despair.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[EIJANDOLUM · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the hours of fear before dawn,
I must learn to lie
perfectly still
if I am ever to absorb.


A ripe raisin stain
that suits almost every woman’s pout
is L’Oreal’s Carnal.

-
Beauty cures us of our innocence,
lost and otherwise.

-

She wants to bleed and sting.
[…]
But is it fair, you ask,
to be punished and paradised
all at once?
Is poetry that hungry?

[Lorene · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is much to be praised in Barresi’s Rouge Pulp, a collection comprised of the most striking poems that often embody themes of history and the habits we are the most familiar with--motherhood, beauty, war, religion, drugs, the goods and services we unmindfully consume. The poems are sharp and lively vignettes; we meet characters as diverse as the greatest stripper of Burlesque, mass murderer Richard Speck, and Otto Plath, father of notable poet, Sylvia Plath. Barresi’s diction is direct and provocative; her lines lyrical and varied.For example, in “Poem to Some of My Recent Purchases,” Barresi writes:

“What I am saying,
my dear, dear purchases,
is that I refuse to be chronically wistful.
I tear open your clear wrappings with my teeth
in the front seat of my car.

I love you.

And if not you, precisely,
I adore the moment the salesgirl hands you over
as if proffering
the sunset and all its glowing fruits.”

Here in the OC, where there are hundreds of fashion-setting stores and boutiques, we can relate to the irony in these lines. It is what Barresi does best—after twenty years in Southern California, she shows us paradise in all its glaring light.

[Kris Bigalk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy Barresi is one of the best women poets writing today. I'm so glad to have encountered her work, and look forward to reading her newest book.