Driving Desire Underground

Burning Shore Reviews, April 2007

By R.K. Wallace

New Orleans, Chicago, and Points Elsewhere
Poems
Gerald Locklin
R)v Press: Long Beach, California, 94 Pages

 

Gerald Locklin, for those younger readers who are not familiar with him, is probably one of America's most important living poets. Locklin has published over 125 books of poetry and prose, of which, just to get a flavour of his writing, Go West Young Toad and Candy Bars are recommended. This year Locklin retires from his job as a professor at California State University, Long Beach, where he has resided and worked for almost four decades. But as far as writing goes, it is a slightly different story. With over 3000 poems in publication, and a mountain of prose, there is no sign of this prolific writer stopping just yet.

And we have proof to that because "The Toad," as Locklin likes to nickname himself, is back with a brand new collection of poetry in a book titled New Orleans, Chicago, and Points Elsewhere, a compilation of works written during some fairly recent trips around the USA. And in age when many young poets are glued to their computer screens surfing the matrix of the internet, it is quite refreshing to see something that has come from being - on the road - which, for a change, is not hung up on ideas of greatness. Indeed, many of those who have read Locklin's work say that it is like being in conversation with the man himself, who talks to you as a human being and not a man with a pretentious sense of fulfilment, nor a growling bitterness that can often be found, for example, in Bukowski's work (this is not a comparison of quality between the two writers, just my opinion of the difference of style, that's all). As he describes himself within Go West Young Toad, he is more of the diplomat. But do not be fooled into thinking Locklin is a pushover. He has had his face rubbed in life. He has had a fair share of women and he has done time with alcohol, which at one point almost killed him. Locklin has, and still lives his own life.

And he does so without moderation, which brings me to one of my favourite poems of this collection, "gustatory success and excess." It is a poem about taking the whole lot or nothing at all, which sort of reminds me of Bukowski's "roll the dice," in the sense that one should "go all the way or don't even try." This is not to say that one way is better than the other, it is about the in between, the moderation, which both poets seem to say does not work for them. Locklin in his poem is describing his life after giving up alcohol, replacing the old vice with food. This is typical Locklin, a man who can take a subject that would be most often written with hard-edged words and nostalgic memories of drinking themselves almost to death, and changing it to a more humane and almost comical tone without losing its overall message:

my students would joke they've never seen me
after a literary reading when i wasn't
chowing down intensely, single-mindedly
at the free-food buffet,
to the exclusion of the conversation,
protocol, intellection, or flirtation.
i just don't enjoy moderation:
i'd rather eat everything in sight
or forgo sampling it

However, it is within the more darker poem, "a streetcar named greed," where Locklin argues that there our desires are being trampled upon, "only a bus now to desire street/ which was named, i learn, after the/ daughter, desiree, of a rich man". In this poem Locklin goes on to critique the dumbing-down effect that is now in excess in America, an effect that is brutally succeeding in forcing people into a moral sense of moderation:

the puritans,
some men, some woman,
some straight, some gay,
are once again aspiring to wean us
from our lusts.
they only drive desire underground.

My own interpretation of this last line is that they only drive the poet who questions conventional values underground. Coming back to the theme of the book, travelling. And therefore, unlike the ancient Li Po, the poet is no longer banished to the countryside to roam about getting drunk while writing poetry, and nor is the poet forced to go on the road where he/she will live the rest of his or her lives traveling from town to town. The hobo is dead; metaphorically, or in the Baudrillardian sense the hobo has no more meaning. Therefore the travelling poet has nowhere to go but to the overcrowded underground. No longer is the underground a safe haven for those few individuals who are outspoken but it is now the mainstream. There is nowhere to move. There is nowhere to go. The roads are full of cars racing at greedy speeds being blinded by scenery of corporate advertisements in place of the clear views of the endless horizons which we use to dream of reaching. Now the dream is reality. We have reached the end of the road - we have reached the end of our desire.

But this does not bother Locklin too much, as he says, "you fit in eventually." In this poem he is referring to his image as a prolific writer and the expectations and demands that come from those who know him, and possibly those who think they know him, as he says in the first line, "everyone assumes." It is also a poem about growing old and not worrying anymore about what thoughts pass by unnoticed, it's about letting go of the process of things and not trying to confront them with false ideas or false meditations:

...i haven't penned
a word until today, weeks afterwards -
i didn't even jot a note until the return
flight. i let the poems come to me these
days, confront life without literary
meditation, and don't fret about the
ones that get away.

"You fit in eventually" is testament to why it's a little hard to say anything negative about this new book of poetry, because Locklin is not one who strives for perfection. As most of his work, there is no pretence here. And what with Locklin having this new book published by one of the smaller small presses, R)v press, he continues to stay very much out of the mainstream public eye, unlike Bukowski, who practically engulfed the status of a rock star (not that I doubt Bukowski's ability as a writer). New Orleans, Chicago, and Points Elsewhere, however, shows how Locklin has continued to stay true to his own craft, making his living primarily as a professor without the desire to capitalise on his well-deserved recognition as one of America's most important modern writers.

R.K. WALLACE lives between Glasgow, Scotland and Long Beach, California. He plays the guitar in the streets for a living. He writes poetry and prose and can be found in the following various publications: Strangeroad, Barfing Frog, Hagard and Hallo, Censored Poets, St Vitus, Instant Pussy, Showcase Press, decomP, Laura Hird, Lit Chaos, Underground Voices, The Beat, 400 Words, Poetic Diversity, Savage Manners.

Copyright © 2007 R.K. Wallace.