{"id":2280,"date":"2017-10-04T00:15:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T00:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=2280"},"modified":"2017-10-04T00:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T00:15:20","slug":"love-itself-can-be-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Further Problems with Pleasure<\/em> by Sandra Simonds<\/strong>
\n University of Akron Press, 2017<\/strong>
\n 72 pages, hardcover $49.95, paper $14.95, epub $9.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further Problems with Pleasure<\/em>, Sandra Simonds\u2019 latest book of poetry, addresses similar themes found in her other collections. All of her work addresses important, timely subjects, yet she has proven with each volume that she is not afraid of leaving her audience uncomfortable. Her poems require her reader to work hard in order to come to a blended understanding of both content and syntax. The payoff is well worth it. To me, the most interesting of her subjects are her explorations of violence against women, the dangers of love, the complexity of living in the South, and the potential of suicide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She opens this collection with a five-page poem provocatively titled, \u201cPoetry Is Stupid and I Want to Die,\u201d updating Marianne Moore\u2019s sentiment for the 21st century. As the title suggests, her lines are manic, almost desperate. By linking her syntax in nontraditional ways and by ending and beginning new sentiments without regard for punctuation, she establishes the manic voice, which emerges from her Lego-like constructions of grammar and yet ends up being hauntingly beautiful. The poem opens as the female speaker, alone in a room with a man, considers how she might escape \u201cunharmed \/ the way a woman has to manipulate both mind and body.\u201d As many readers know too well, women find themselves in situations that can turn dangerous in an instant. Here, we are reminded to always consider an escape route.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For Simonds, love itself can be dangerous. Such a forceful theme is apparent in much of this collection. In \u201cSpring Dirge,\u201d she states, \u201cSome people call it self-destructiveness \/ but I call it love.\u201d Even more explicitly, she writes about the violent repercussions against women in \u201cA Lover\u2019s Discourse\u201d:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every so many seconds a woman is hit by a man\n\u00a0<\/span>with direct tectonic rage. Geology\n\u00a0<\/span>is some rough sadism I know\n\u00a0<\/span>not what. Agony is property\n\u00a0<\/span>but it is also agony. Vow to me, agony!\n\u00a0<\/span>Declare your allegiance! (Or buy me a house.)<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Simonds\u2019 manic voice mirrors the complexity of these lines and the familiar, cultural position of the powerlessness of women. Here, the speaker considers the payoff of an abusive relationship, one defined by agony and rage, to that of material wealth. In poem after poem, Simonds positions her speaker in these places of opposition.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
For example, another favorite poem of mine from this collection, \u201cOur Lady of Perpetual Help,\u201d juxtaposes ideas of the feminine. The poem, set in Mississippi, describes a group of nuns who are not who \u201cthey pretend to be \/ One is pregnant under her habit \/ One thinks she ought not to touch that \/ One buys a Diet Dr. Pepper and Twizzlers.\u201d Because this poem is set in the South, I can\u2019t help but wonder about the sins and terrors of this geography. Is God dead? Has he been false (like these nuns) all along? The poem digresses into a word and sound play on \u201cnun\u201d and \u201cnone\u201d:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
This is a place of weeping things\n\u00a0<\/span>where the world has wept\n\u00a0<\/span>and wept and no one has come\n\nNo Father None \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No Mother None\nNo Baby None Comes \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No Sister\nNone Comes No Brother None Comes\nNo One \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 like None\nIt\u2019s that kind of place\n\u00a0<\/span>You\u2019ve seen it before\n\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s blind to everything, everyone<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Although they are not officially marked, I would say that Further Problems with Pleasure<\/em> is separated into three sections. The middle section, titled \u201cThe Baudelaire Variations,\u201d is broken into sixteen smaller poems. Simonds translates several Baudelaire poems, mostly maintaining a close reading of the original, yet modernizing them in order to bring them into the contemporary world. Most of the translations follow the path other translators have taken, but a poem like \u201cI Love Wine!\u201d is acutely different:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Today, omg, I\u2019m just so spaced out and splendid\n\u00a0<\/span>as I walk this earth without death, without an apron\nwithout being a wife and so my queer heart transforms into the nostrils of a\n\u00a0<\/span>winter\n\u00a0<\/span>workhorse whose exhalation breaks through the iced tulip sky.<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
A large majority of the poems throughout her book are in the form of an address, and here too, Simonds ends with an address\u2014this time to someone named Felix, requesting a trip to the \u201cOregon coast \/ [to] relax inside the boxed wine paradise of our dreams.\u201d Historically, Baudelaire and photographer Felix Nadar were very close friends. Baudelaire claimed that Nadar was the \u201cmost amazing manifestation of vitality.\u201d Perhaps Simonds is playing with this historical relationship and a present-day character to whom most of the poems in this section are addressed. Felix changes gender and appears to be a muse or imaginary partner. Remarkably, the name Felix is derived from the Latin for \u201chappy.\u201d Felix, for Simonds, is the \u201cmanifestation of vitality\u201d that often, poem to poem, seems elusive.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
The first and third sections of her book include both poems that reveal the hectic, intense inclinations of the speaker\u2019s tone as well as poems that are tight, clear, and adhere to grammatical order. In both the first and third sections, the word \u201csuicide\u201d frequently occurs. It is a conceit that makes sense considering the desperateness of a suicidal mind. Mania and suicide go hand and hand. Simonds\u2019 opening poems make the claim \u201cI can\u2019t imagine why anyone \/ would feel the desire to hurt a woman \/ who thinks about suicide every day.\u201d Occasionally, the speaker of a poem declares that they don\u2019t want to kill themselves, or they implode grammar into one important conviction in lines like \u201cThis is my life \/ I don\u2019t want it I do.\u201d Poems like \u201cOde to Suicide, Delirium, and Early REM\u201d advertise from the beginning the difficulty the speaker has with life. Always keeping in the contemporary world, Simonds\u2019 brilliantly contrasts a Twitter or Facebook posting about the shape of a women\u2019s eyes to those of Mary as an icon:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
mine are not almond-shaped, like my sister\u2019s, my tips are \u201cdownturned,\u201d\n\u00a0<\/span>something medieval and sad, something fenced-in the manuscript or\n\u00a0<\/span>economic,\n\u00a0<\/span>the way they paint the little strawberries are a technological advance,\nand deep green vines up the gold-vermillion boxes to keep the text in, to keep\nthe lion in, to keep the flow\n\u00a0<\/span>of the blue flow robes in,\n\u00a0<\/span>Mine point down (Almond eye surgery for downturned eyes? please help,\n\u00a0<\/span>photos)\n\u00a0<\/span>the way Mary\u2019s tips point down, the hue, a libidinous blue,\na corruption, wave, metal star work of mournful\n\u00a0<\/span>space \u2014<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
I so admire how Simonds takes what to many of us might seem trivial social media moments and reminds us of the bombardment of criticism and difficulty that comes with simply surviving in the modern world. And, unfortunately for many, it becomes too much:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
I follow these downward tips\n\u00a0<\/span>my eye sockets\nthat are not beautiful after all\n\u00a0<\/span>but eternally plain\nas coffins.<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
In \u201cElysian Fields\u201d the speaker asserts \u201cLife is evil \/ That is all \/ I want to live because I\u2019m stubborn.\u201d The poem takes its title from classical mythology as the final resting place for the blessed. It also references a place or state of perfect happiness, paradise. As it is situated as one of her final poems in the collection, might Simonds be addressing the one thing her speaker searches for poem after poem? Further Problems with Pleasure<\/em>, as the title suggests, is the elusiveness of that pleasure and all the obstacles that get in its way. Readers must endure the mind of one who toys with suicide and addresses difficult themes stemming from social to geographical limits and confines, but on the other end lies something real and rewarding and magical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sandra Simonds is not afraid of leaving her audience uncomfortable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2287,"template":"","categories":[9,139],"tags":[6,347,348,349,344],"class_list":["post-2280","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-book-review","tag-didi-jackson","tag-further-problems-with-pleasure","tag-sandra-simonds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLove Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sandra Simonds is not afraid of leaving her audience uncomfortable.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/10\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/\",\"name\":\"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/43\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-04T00:15:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/43\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/43\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg\",\"width\":330,\"height\":195},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Florida Review\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review","og_description":"Sandra Simonds is not afraid of leaving her audience uncomfortable.","og_url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/","og_site_name":"The Florida Review","og_image":[{"width":330,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/10\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/","url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/","name":"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous - The Florida Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/10\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-04T00:15:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/10\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2017\/10\/Simonds-FPWP-cover-cropped.jpg","width":330,"height":195},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/love-itself-can-be-dangerous\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Love Itself Can Be Dangerous"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/","name":"The Florida Review","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}