Review | Heavy Petting, Gregory Sherl
YesYes Books

The intimacy of Gregory Sherl’s writing is seductive. In Heavy Petting, Sherl’s first full-length collection and the debut title from YesYes Books (September 2011), the poetry is so revealing that whether the writing is autobiographical or not, Sherl gives the impression he is willing to cut himself open, to bleed nakedly for his work, for his reader.

Heavy Petting is divided into four loosely thematic sections—Gently, From My Journal, Fame, and XOXOXO On My Converse—though the book would read equally well without the sections. The poems in “Gently” begin the seduction and each poem’s intent is clear. There is a charming, though perhaps also deceptive, innocence at work such as in these lines “This morning we decide to build//a baby in your belly,” from the poem “You and I,” or in “Yours, Me,” where Sherl writes, “I tie a string to her wrist, glide her around the ceiling//like I was walking the sky. In my bedroom looking down at me,//she knows I know I am not alone.” There is also an intense eroticism in poems like the gorgeous, “Let me stretch into your sigh,” where Sherl subtly details an intimate moment with the line, “Slowly, I steep into your thighs,” making the words, images and ideas in these poems tactile. Every touch, every warm breath, every sensual moment is so intimately and exquisitely rendered as to arouse the senses in the best possible, and often unexpected, ways.

In “End Credits,” Sherl complicates his erotic gaze by juxtaposing a clearly sexual tone with domestic trappings:

     I want to run my tongue along your femur
     touch you like a showerhead. What I mean
     is I want to fuck like a clothesline
     on a Saturday afternoon

In the foreword Bob Hicock observes that Sherl’s poems are dreamy. I understand the instinct to see these poems as having the hazy, ethereal quality of dreams. Many of the poems, regardless of the subject matter, are imbued with a sense of wonder. Through that sense of wonder, Sherl creates a very immersive experience, one you can literally breath in. In “2006,” Sherl writes, “I want to smell the sound of a wave against my skull.//Meaning you’re too far away to build this time machine.” In “This is a Rap Record,” he writes, “Now, nothing. Now, the clouds hang so low//I can taste them. I have skipped breakfast.//I am waiting for someone to figure out//how to make beer grow from a can.” Throughout the collection, Sherl offers the reader imaginative juxtapositions that hold you firmly in the world he has created—a world that is charming, bittersweet, sexy, poignant and even heartbreaking. Each poem offers insight into the poet and how his mind (heart) works and sometimes fails.

These poems are also marked by intensity and obsession, and certain themes—love, lust, domestic intimacy, insecurity, mental illness, manhood and others— are revisited across many poems. Despite the repetition of these themes, each poem feels fresh and original because Sherl is always able to articulate his obsessions in new and unique ways. In “Scratch and Sniff,” the speaker addresses being bipolar:

     2007 was my year of no

     fucking. My bipolar disorder has been in my sock drawer for at least seven

     months. Three years ago my bipolar disorder was in my mouth. I stuck it

     behind my ear while I ate. It never burned the roof of my mouth

He also discusses depression. In “Health Insurance,” the speaker observes, “To call myself depressed would be to call myself lightly salted after a run.” These observations are offered without self-pity, but still convey a great deal of poignancy.

Many of the poems in Heavy Petting refer to some aspect of mental illness, and in particular, the pharmaceutical regime one must submit to. In “Everything Between Here Is Still Here And Then,” the speaker says, “When I do take the pills, she will come by//and I will say Go away. I’ll wait for her to come back and she will, twice,” while in “Trumpeted Ears,” he says, “My mother leaves a Xanax on//my pillow. Like a mint. I unwrap it under my//tongue. I disinfect pen caps before I chew//them.” There are many such references but different approaches keep the collection from ever feeling repetitive. Sherl also offers a more nuanced view of mental illness by moving beyond diagnosis to explore some of the quotidian burdens of dealing with such conditions.

This collection is deeply immersive and that experience rises, in large part, from a strong, consistent, and resonant emotional core. The strongest poems reveal a depth of feeling conveyed in interesting ways because Sherl always hones in on exquisite moments. In “Concerning the Way You Taste in the Morning,” the speaker says, “Let’s talk about the way you taste in the morning. I always think of //applesauce. I want chocolate chip pancakes after resting between your legs.” A similar tenderness can be found in “When I Look Up, I Look Up,” where the speaker says:

     You might say Because I love you.

     That wouldn’t make any sense but whatever,

     you’re the best flavor of Crystal Light

     and my tongue has been stung by a hundred

     fireflies.

These poems also explore relationships beginning or ending or lasting, such as in, “Watermelon Beer,” where the speaker says, “I eat my dessert with//dinner because she never stops me from practicing our future inside her. She//falls in love with me because I ask her to.” or in “Rush Hour Traffic,” a poem filled with the melancholic tensions in a relationship where the speaker says:

     I crawled into her winter. By

     summer we were sick of calling music rush hour traffic. We were sick of

     reversing out of parking spots. She sat in the passenger seat and buckled her

     hands. I said That’s not going to help,

This emotional core makes the book feel more cohesive than many poetry collections. While many collections are uneven, every poem in Heavy Petting is necessary. The poems in this book belong together and the connection between them feels organic.

These poems also reveal the interesting contrast between tender nerves and vulnerability. We see the sensuous moments between men and women, and the insecurities of a man who is exceptionally aware of his own fragility. We see his insecurities and fears, his doubts as well as a great deal of yearning to connect, to understand his place in the world, to find someone to join him in that place. In “OCD,” for example, the speaker explores the trials of having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with an honesty that deftly avoids treading well-worn territory in a trite or clichéd manner. “I take a Xanax while you wash the towels. Today I say/ No more, I will only wash my hands three times before/ dinner. I don’t feel clean unless I’m burning,” and later in the poem “Three times before dinner. You don’t say anything;/ you’re too busy trying not to overcook the pasta while you/ switch the towels from the washing machine to the dryer.”

That balance between the speaker examining himself and the speaker referring to or about an unnamed “you” is a theme in many of the poems, and the balance works well. There is also a balance between the personal, almost painful, and the inevitable routine of a domestic life. Again, juxtaposition is a hallmark of Sherl’s poetry.

The language of these poems is as seductive as the subject matter. Sherl is particularly adept at filling with his poems with imaginative word play such as “The operator connects me to the mouth of the Ohio/ River. I tell the Ohio River: You are an awkward name” (“Be My Date”). These moments keep the poetry vibrant and engaging because you never know how Sherl will reveal the workings of his imagination from one poem to the next.

It’s challenging to introduce popular culture into poetry, but Sherl manages this well. The “Fame,” section is one that could likely stand on it’s own because of the way the thirteen poems are arranged beginning with “Opening Credits,” and ending with “End Credits.” In these poems, Sherl demonstrates a clear understanding of what we love  (or hate) about Wikipedia, or Mel Gibson, or Lloyd Dobler, or any of the common popular culture referances we are drawn to, or repulsed by.

In “Sestina for Lloyd Dobler,” he writes:

     O how I would eat my pudding cup slowly to know
     how the feathers on your pillow feel against my left
     ear. Your boombox louder than mine, your heart
     fills the western hemisphere, clouds the eyes
     of every girl I’ve wanted to drink from the bottle.
     I have your poster in my bedroom.

Sherl starts from a familiar place, the image we all know of Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything standing beneath Diane’s window, his boombox held high over his head as he declares his love, but he takes the poem into a place that is entirely of his own making. That, in fact, is the heart of this collection—the poet showing us the fascinating world of his own making. 

The only element of the collection that didn’t feel as successful was the meta-commentary in some of the poems, or the predilection of the poet to poem about poeming. When Sherl directed his attention to an aspect of the poetic craft, I wanted him to keep his attention focused anywhere else. His vision and his ability to articulate that vision are so unique they feel wasted on the solipsistic gaze of meta-commentary. As a reader, I don’t want to be reminded that I’m reading a poem instead of experiencing a poem. In lesser work, the meta-commentary would not be so noticeable. Heavy Petting, however, is a very strong collection of poetry from a writer who knows how to craft beautiful, emotionally resonant poems. This book is so beautiful that all you’ll want to do is breathe these poems in, deeply, and hold them in your chest.  

Roxane Gay’s writing appears or is forthcoming in New Stories From the Midwest 2011, Best Sex Writing 2012, NOON, Cream City Review, Black Warrior Review, Brevity, The Rumpus, Bookslut, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK, an HTMLGIANT contributor, and her first collection, Ayiti, was released in October 2011.