What We’re Reading: MVP (Most Valuable Poet)

Facts About the Moon

by Dorianne Laux

Full disclosure: Dorianne Laux is my favorite poet of all time, hands down. And while I know this is not an incredibly recent book (published in 2007—in fact, she has a new collection, The Book of Men, released in February), it happens to also be my favorite poetry collection. When my creative writing spark fizzles, and I just need a good ol’ kick in the pants, or a reason to write, or some undeniable inspiration (please, not in the sappy feel-good way, because let me warn you, there’s a lot of darkness and harsh reality in Dorianne’s poetry), I open up to any page in this collection. If I didn’t blog about it at some point, well, that would just be wrong.

What do I love about Dorianne? Oh dear, so many things. She doesn’t shy away from intensely dark moments or experiences. She’s not ashamed of anything, talks openly about sex, both the pleasurable and the horrible unwanted kinds. She portrays the body as beautiful and gritty in the same line. She has a poem about trees (read: Wren loves trees). Most of all, Dorianne’s voice isn’t preachy, doesn’t pretend to be all-knowing, elitist. It is instead unflinchingly honest, funny, real, and heart-achingly lovely.

I could go on and on, but I’ll let you fall in love with her poetry yourself. Want to hear her reading the title poem? You should. Go here. Now.

If you’re one of our letterpress fans, you should check out Dorianne’s letterpress chapbook, Dark Charms, published by Red Dragonfly Press. I would tell you to look up her chapbook Superman by RDP, too, but, like many limited-edition letterpress beauties, it’s sold out. Sorry folks. Become my friend, and maybe I’ll lend it to you. (Another full disclosure: Red Dragonfly Press is my MVP of letterpresses. The founder, Scott King, an artist in poetry chapbooks, is my letterpress mentor.)