{"id":7589,"date":"2023-05-28T03:25:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T03:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=7589"},"modified":"2023-05-28T03:25:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T03:25:47","slug":"review-undress-she-said-by-doug-anderson","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/review-undress-she-said-by-doug-anderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Undress, She Said by Doug Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Undress, She Said <\/em>by Doug Anderson
\nFour Way Books, September, 2022
\n$17.95, 102 pages
\nReviewed by Thomas Page<\/p>\n

\"Undress,<\/p>\n

What would happen if someone were to break down our stereotype of the male poet, the one spending his time typing away at his keyboard about his problems with his body and those he wishes to share it with? Doug Anderson seeks to find this answer in his latest poetry collection. Undress, She Said <\/em>is a vividly crafted poetry collection that takes the reader down the path of the traditional masculine poet-voice and his relationship with his sense of place. This sense of place forms the backbone of the collection\u2019s debate about how pride, sexuality, and memory impact the mind of a man in a war-dominate society. Doug Anderson opens with \u201cProphesy,\u201d setting the stage for the theme of accepting fate that is pervasive throughout the collection. In support of this theme, he writes,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a storm coming,
\nclouds opening, closing their fists.
\nNo point in boarding up the house\u201d (3).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The speaker in this collection is subjected to a variety of influences that make him desensitized to the many problems of the collection\u2019s world. Undress, She Said <\/em>is divided into four parts that talk about each of these influences: \u201cLove in Plague Time,\u201d \u201cThe War Doesn\u2019t End,\u201d \u201cHomage,\u201d and \u201cMythologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In \u201cLove in Plague Time,\u201d Anderson writes about the convergence of religion, morality, and desire that complicate how the speaker interacts with his world. This is the longest section of the book and serves as a \u201cpart 1\u201d to the collection\u2019s themes. The content of the poems in this section ranges from mental health (\u201cWhen the Plague Came\u201d) to sexuality (\u201cMasturbation\u201d). This section is imbued with the apathy that comes from a life conflicted between what the speaker wants to do and what he should do. For example, in \u201cSkeleton of Water,\u201d Anderson toes the line between these two ideas, writing,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a failure as a libertine, always falling in love,
\nlacked the detachment of a true rake, drank to hide
\nmy heart\u2019s anarchy, the knowledge that the angels
\nI wrestled with were divine\u201d (30).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His technical approach in this section is to alienate the voice from his world through various snapshots of his past. The focus on the past self and the present voice helps to characterize the kind of voice that will be taking the reader throughout the reflections in the rest of the book. The speaker discusses how life in an idyllic setting can make him feel ostracized by his own people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anderson centers these themes of morality into the realm of military veterans who come from his society in the second section, \u201cThe War Doesn\u2019t End.\u201d This section is primarily focused on veterans from the Vietnam War and how the war has affected their lives. In the title poem \u201cThe War Doesn\u2019t End\u201d Anderson reflects on a mixed-race solider he meets in Ho Chi Mihn City after the war has ended, saying that the soldier is:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Mixed black and Vietnamese, unwelcome here,
\nunwelcome there, son of a soldier gone\u201d (65).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This \u201csoldier gone\u201d forms the narrative backbone of this second section as Anderson navigates through the indoctrination the Marines received (\u201cKilling with a Name\u201d) to how this allowed them to inflict turmoil on others (\u201cSomewhere South of Danang, 1967\u201d). Anderson demonstrates his narrative skill in his poetry through the lyrical story his voice tells in this section. He also connects the speaker\u2019s problems with his life before in \u201cLove in Plague Time\u201d to the lack of interest in the problems of \u201cThe War Doesn\u2019t End.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The two sides of the speaker\u2014the apathetic citizen (\u201cLove in the Plague Time\u201d) and the desensitized Marine (\u201cThe War Doesn\u2019t End\u201d)\u2014melt away and meld in the third section of \u201cHomage.\u201d Anderson spends most of this section in conversation with Li Po, another poet, about how his life\u2019s two previous phases have affected him. He reflects on his aging (\u201cHomage to Li Po\u201d) and how that affects his ultimately nihilistic outlook on life (\u201cAnonymous Civil Servant, T\u2019ang Dynasty\u201d). However, in \u201cTwo Poets Drinking,\u201d Anderson realizes that this line of thinking is destructive and that being a part of a relationship is vital to survival:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe keeps me from stepping off the cliff,
\nI catch him when he falls.
\nAnd fall he will, as will I\u201d (79).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The speaker\u2019s journey throughout this section is to destroy and rebuild who he was in this life, revealing the ways he is trying to be a better person. The conversational form of the third section serves as a paradigm shift in the collection\u2019s overall tone and theme. Indeed it is the bridge of the collection\u2019s lyrical structure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anderson ends his collection with \u201cMythologies,\u201d a contemporary reflection of the themes of Greek mythology and Biblical stories with the themes and settings discussed earlier in the book. Some of his subjects are Odysseus (\u201cCyclops\u201d) and Adam. In \u201cSurvivor,\u201d he combines the legend of Circe with the setting of a strip club:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw my men in that topless bar
\nthat Circe ran, throwing their
\ncombat pay up on the stage,
\nher tucking the bills in her g-string” (96).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He circles back to the themes presented in \u201cLove in Plague Time\u201d under the guise of using myths and stories to reexamine the themes of alienation. The section and the collection ends with \u201cAge is Asking Me to Give Up Love.\u201d Much like the cyclical nature of myth, Anderson says,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMight be easier if love gave me up.
\nIt won\u2019t, nor has it sublimated
\ninto something holy\u201d (102).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s text is striking due to its streamlined lyricism and juxtaposition of the natural and artificial. This is well-exemplified in the line \u00a0\u201cI was shocked, thought in our madness you\u2019d bitten my lip. But it was only blueberries\u201d (82).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Undress, She Said <\/em>will stand out to readers through its varied reflection of the male poet within the last century.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anderson writes about the convergence of religion, morality, and desire that complicate how the speaker interacts with his world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7799,"template":"","categories":[9,139,1569],"tags":[889,347,1891,201,1892,1893],"class_list":["post-7589","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","category-reviews","tag-aquifer","tag-book-review","tag-doug-anderson","tag-poetry","tag-thomas-page","tag-undress-she-said"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Undress, She Said by Doug Anderson - 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\/review-undress-she-said-by-doug-anderson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Undress, She Said by Doug Anderson - 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