Poetry New York

    Elizabeth Reddin's poetry is a grand symposium full of heartache, neuroticism, insecurities, and a couple of happy thoughts scattered about. It makes one contemplate their own insecurities but not in that uncomfortable kind of way, it's a strange celebration of them. Her performance at the UDP reading on Friday, April 25th was captivating because she performs like she writes or rather her performance made me feel exactly how it did when I read her work. Her stance was a little odd, she seemed comfortable yet anxious. Her sense of humor is dry and although she assembles a look of uncertainty on her face, she, without a doubt knows how to make her poetry come alive on stage. I spoke with her afterwards and she was hesitant to talk about her poetry, or her ‘writing methods', instead she talked about this playground that she visited in Bed-Sty (we live in the same area!) that had a huge piano on the ground so people could step on it and make music. Her excitement was that of a child. I fell in love instantly.
    She writes about the fear of being lonely, strange, at war with everything, and under-appreciated in a world that seems rather bleak and redundant. She turns the all too-normal-everyday-routine into a poetic reverie and intertwines dreams and reality and completely absurd happenings into a prose-like poem. Her book, The Hot Garment of Love is Insecure, is in three sections: Red War, Verdia, and (Why) Won't You Hold Me? It's very Edward Gorey- like style of font and the cover resembles a tombstone. It's all very appropriate considering the ‘serious' substance of her work and the dark humor that she juxtaposes it with.
    Red War talks about the repetition of tedious routines that we battle with, she repeats words and lines and constructs a series of questions and demands that can be asked by the person be nagged or the person doing the nagging. It's a vicious cycle, or more appropriately, a war, within ourselves and society, and it forces one to take a close look at just how many regulations and questions we have to endure every minute of every day;

did you wash your hair
I'm tired
Did you wash your hair yet
have you washed your hair
did you wash your hair
have you washed your hair...

...When in uniform I follow directions given me by the
commander. Salute! I salute.

Take her to the sacrifice rock!

In uniform I take myself to the sacrifice rock.

    In Verdia, Reddin captures those feelings that are often inexplicable because they are different for everyone. Things such as the fear of heights, the fear of missing someone when they leave, the strange fear of strangers, the fear that soldiers have in battle, and the lack of dreaming (or of having a dream).
    In contrast, (Why) Won't you hold me? goes in and out of a dream-like state. There are two characters, including a man and women in a relationship, however, it is mostly the woman in the poem thinking about her past and future. She tells us her wish: Coffee every morning with one ancestor from each generation going back two thousand years. Then she tells the reader what her dreams are about and goes back and forth about her experiences in real life and how the two relate. It's a very surreal experience reading it, the subtle repetitions are hard to pick up on with the first reading. There are certain lines that made me read over and over again trying to grasp meaning or maybe just trying to relate it to my own insecurities...?

...when I start to write I wonder what I am writing and for what, I've never completely grasped what it is to live for yourself or to say what I make is a life giving source. How to have a good time while being alone. How to live. But just going into the room and out of it, how can you be making focused work, I hate the word work when talking about art, I hate the word art when talking about life or living it...