Real Things : An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry

by Elledge, Jim

• ISBN13: 9780253212290
• ISBN10: 0253212294
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"What a great premise for an anthology! And it succeeds, both in its celebration of our crazy culture and its fascinating analysis, through the poems, of popular myths that have stood the test of time." -- KliattIn the past few decades, poetry about and around popular culture has become a very hip contemporary art form. Real Things is a collection of over 150 poems by more than 130 poets who themselves represent the cultural diversity of the United States. With subjects ranging from the influence of Mickey Mouse on child-raising to the relationship of Barbie to sex in America, from the societal effects of the movie Psycho to our fascination with dirty politics and Ralph Kramden, the poems in this anthology question and celebrate the attitudes that our society shares.

Author Biography

Among JIM ELLEDGE's ten books are four collections of his poetry, most recently Into the Arms of the Universe which won the 1995 Stonewall competition for gay and lesbian poets; four volumes of literary criticism; and Sweet Nothings: An Anthology of Rock and Roll in American Poetry, also published by Indiana University Press. Professor of English at Illinois State University, he teaches in that department's creative writing program and is director/editor of Thorngate Road, a press.Susan Swartwout is Assistant Professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University where she teaches creative writing and literature. She also serves on the editorial staff of The Cape Rock and advises the student literary magazine, Journey. Her two collections of poetry are entitled Freaks and Uncommon Ground, and she has poems published in literary journals such as Nebraska Review, The Cape Rock, Mississippi Review, Negative Capability, and Spoon River Poetry Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
Hygiene	1	(2)
Reginald Shepherd
Mid-Year Report: For Haruko	3	(4)
June Jordan
Pay Up or Else	7	(1)
Luci Tapahonso
Why We Bombed Haiphong	8	(1)
Jonathan Holden
The Shower Scene in Psycho	9	(9)
David Trinidad
No, Superman Was Not the Only One	18	(1)
Katharyn Howd Machan
note, passed to superman	19	(1)
Lucille Clifton
Superman Is Dead	20	(1)
Rafael Campo
If I Were Rita Hayworth	21	(1)
Patricia Spears Jones
Famous Women---Claudette Colbert	22	(2)
Kathleen de Azevedo
Up	24	(1)
Bill Kushner
The Gypsy Teaches Her Grandchild Wolfen Ways	25	(2)
Susan Swartwout
Frankenstein	27	(1)
Connie Deanovich
The Bride of Frankenstein	28	(3)
Edward Field
St. Clare's Underwear	31	(3)
Barbara Hamby
Kong Breaks a Leg at the William Morris Agency	34	(1)
William Trowbridge
Francis Ford Coppola and Anthropologist Interpreter Teaching Gartewienna Tribesmen to Sing ``Light My Fire,'' Philippine Jungle, 1978	35	(1)
David Wojahn
Suzie Wong Doesn't Live Here	36	(2)
Diane Mei Lin Mark
Suzy Wong's Been Dead a Long Time	38	(2)
Kitty Tsui
Soap Bubbles	40	(2)
Chrystos
Scene from the Movie Giant	42	(2)
Tino Villanueva
James Dean & the Pig	44	(3)
Joseph Like
Mom Did Marilyn, Dad Did Fred	47	(1)
Jack Myers
The Death of Marilyn Monroe	48	(1)
Sharon Olds
[I have come to claim/Marilyn Monroe's body]	49	(2)
Judy Grahn
Marilyn Monroe Indian	51	(2)
Leo Romero
November 22, 1983	53	(1)
Sherman Alexie
Jackie in Cambodia	54	(1)
Catherine Bowman
from ``Some Adventures of John Kennedy, Jr.''	55	(2)
Dennis Cooper
The Man I Love and I Have a Typical Evening the Night Richard M. Nixon Dies	57	(2)
Jim Elledge
The End of the Reagan Era	59	(1)
Peter Balakian
Viet Kong	60	(1)
William Trowbridge
Blue Suede Shoes	61	(6)
Ai
A Story of Stonewall	67	(1)
Maureen Seaton
Lonely Tylenol	68	(1)
Peter Gizzi
An Anointing	69	(2)
Thylias Moss
The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke	71	(1)
David Lehman
Coca-Cola and Coco Frio	72	(2)
Martin Espada
No Deposit No Returns	74	(2)
Carlos Cumpian
Why Don't I?	76	(2)
O. F. Diaz-Duque
Corpse and Mirror (III)	78	(2)
John Yau
Barbie Says Math Is Hard	80	(2)
Kyoko Mori
Barbie's Molester	82	(1)
Denise Duhamel
Mannequins	83	(2)
Daniel Mark Epstein
Toys	85	(2)
Carl Phillips
My Father's Pornography	87	(2)
David Wojahn
After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed	89	(2)
Rita Dove
Breasts	91	(2)
Maxine Chernoff
A Personal History of Hands	93	(2)
Lori Jakiela
The True Story of Snow White	95	(1)
Bruce Bennett
Rapunzel	96	(2)
Olga Broumas
Hazel Tells LaVerne	98	(1)
Katharyn Howd Machan
Jack, Afterwards	99	(2)
Philip Dacey
Peter Pan in North America	101	(2)
Robin Becker
Self Portrait as Nancy Drew, Girl Sleuth	103	(1)
Kristy Nielsen
Rumpelstiltskin Convention	104	(2)
Charles H. Webb
Sonny's Purple Heart	106	(3)
Adrian C. Louis
One Meat Ball	109	(2)
Thomas Lux
The Day They Eulogized Mahalia	111	(2)
Audre Lorde
Iowa Blues Bar Spiritual	113	(3)
Juan Felipe Herrera
Echoes	116	(3)
Timothy Liu
Liberace	119	(1)
Jonathan Holden
We Encounter Nat King Cole as We Invent the Future	120	(2)
Joy Harjo
Mythology	122	(1)
Marilyn Hacker
The Black Back-Ups	123	(4)
Kate Rushin
Motown/Smokey Robinson	127	(2)
Jessica Hagedorn
Dizzy Girls in the Sixties	129	(2)
Gary Soto
Woodstock	131	(2)
Jan-Mitchell Sherrill
The First Rock and Roll Song of 1970	133	(2)
Pedro Pietri
``It's Only Rock and Roll but I Like It'': The Fall of Saigon, 1975	135	(1)
David Wojahn
Blonde Ambition	136	(2)
Maureen Seaton
Punk Pantoum	138	(2)
Pamela Stewart
Teaching Poetry at Votech High, Santa Fe, the Week John Lennon Was Shot	140	(10)
Paula Gunn Allen
Never Land	150	(2)
Yusef Komunyakaa
The Birth of Rhythm and Blues	152	(4)
Patricia Spears Jones
Billie in Silk	156	(2)
Angela Jackson
Oshi	158	(2)
James L. White
Homage to Elvis, Homage to the Fathers	160	(2)
Bruce Weigl
El Elvis	162	(2)
Wasabi Kanastoga
Come Back, Elvis, Come Back to Holyoke	164	(1)
Mary A. Koncel
Soap	165	(1)
Jane Candia Coleman
from Ephemera Today on ``All My Children''	166	(6)
Connie Deanovich
In the Days of Rin-Tin-Tin	172	(1)
Daniel Hoffman
Funicello at 50	173	(2)
klipschutz
When I Think About America Sometimes (I Think of Ralph Kramden)	175	(6)
Dorothy Barresi
David Cassidy Then	181	(2)
Dennis Cooper
Gilligan's Island	183	(2)
Tim Dlugos
Postmodern: A Definition	185	(2)
Joseph Like
TV in Black and White	187	(2)
Gary Soto
TV	189	(2)
Rodney Jones
The Talk Show	191	(2)
Albert Goldbarth
Misguided Angels	193	(4)
Gale Renee Walden
Ghosts	197	(2)
William Carpenter
The Apparition	199	(2)
Carol J. Pierman
Jeane Dixon's America	201	(2)
Gerald Costanzo
Tabloid News	203	(3)
Blythe Nobleman
A Supermarket in California	206	(2)
Allen Ginsberg
Shopping for Midnight	208	(2)
G. E. Murray
The Man I Love and I Shop at Jewel	210	(2)
Jim Elledge
Mail Order Catalogs	212	(1)
William Matthews
Catalogue Army	213	(2)
Naomi Shihab Nye
Tradition and Change	215	(2)
Nora Naranjo-Morse
For Emily (Dickinson)	217	(2)
Maureen Owen
Thrift Shop Ladies	219	(2)
Jennifer M. Pierson
The Novelty Shop	221	(1)
Duane Niatum
Shoplifting	222	(1)
Baron Wormser
Shoplifters	223	(2)
Maura Stanton
Whitman	225	(2)
Larry Levis
The Decisions	227	(1)
Rick Bursky
Siamese Twins in Love	228	(2)
Susan Swartwout
My Son Shows Me a Photograph of Michael Jordan Performing a Slam Dunk	230	(2)
Louis Phillips
Mantle	232	(1)
William Heyen
The Incognito Lounge	233	(5)
Denis Johnson
Romance	238	(1)
Paul Zimmer
Days of 1981	239	(3)
Mark Doty
8-Ball at the Twilite	242	(1)
David Baker
Ted's Bar and Grill	243	(3)
Jim Daniels
A Story Often Told in Bars: The Reader's Digest Version	246	(1)
William Matthews
The Stripper	247	(2)
Anita Endrezze Probst
The Dancing Sunshine Lounge	249	(1)
Thomas Rabbitt
Dreaming at the Rexall Drug	250	(2)
Robin Becker
Waitress	252	(1)
Jason Shinder
On the Bearing of Waitresses	253	(2)
Rodney Jones
The All-Night Diner	255	(2)
Markham Johnson
Lunch with Girl Scouts	257	(2)
Sharon Bryan
Vanna White's Bread Pudding	259	(2)
Michael Pettit
'mericn fst fd	261	(1)
Thom Tammaro
Short-Order Cook	262	(2)
Jim Daniels
Arrowhead Christian Center and No-Smoking Luncheonette	264	(2)
Janet Sylvester
By-Products	266	(2)
Baron Wormser
Why That's Bob Hope	268	(1)
William Hathaway
Of Time and the Line	269	(2)
Charles Bernstein
The Counterfeit Earth!	271	(4)
Albert Goldbarth
Harold and Imogene	275	(2)
Paul Violi
The Motorcyclists	277	(2)
James Tate
Indian Car	279	(3)
Catron Grieves
In the Black Camaro	282	(2)
David Bottoms
The Lady in the Pink Mustang	284	(2)
Louise Erdrich
Because You're American	286	(2)
Kevin Stein
Take Good Care of Yourself	288	(2)
Mark Wunderlich
Lost Parents	290	(2)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Scrabble	292	(1)
David Starkey
Off from Swing Shift	293	(2)
Garrett Hongo
Moon Winx Motel	295	(2)
Emily Hiestand
Outside Room Six	297	(1)
Lynn Emanuel
In the Bluemist Hotel	298	(2)
Greg Pape
Transient Hotel Sky at the Hour of Sleep	300	(3)
Martin Espada
Tattoo #47, ``Happy Dragon''	303	(2)
Paul Allen
Pornography, Nebraska	305	(2)
Sandra McPherson
In a U-Haul North of Damascus	307	(3)
David Bottoms
The Man She Called Honey, and Married	310	(2)
Alberto Rios
After the Wedding Party	312	(1)
Matthew Rohrer
Ikon	313	(1)
Timothy Liu
Pickup	314	(3)
Paul Allen
Author Index	317	(2)
Title Index	319	(3)
First Line Index	322	(4)
Acknowledgments	326