Alex MacDonaldThe title of my residency is ‘This Twittering World’, a reference to T.S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton and, also, Twitter. I discovered a lot of my now favourite poets through Twitter when I joined several years ago. It also was an eye-opener into how the poetic mind works, shoring its ideas into small fragments.
In this regular series, I will be focusing on several poets who are on Twitter and showcasing some of my favourites from their previous tweets. Some poets are incredibly profound, and others are more humorous.
The first is Patricia Lockwood. Patricia’s poetry is strange and beguiling. Of the poems I have read of hers, they can often be meandering and perplexing. She is one of a handful of modern poets that has had a poem which has gone ‘viral’. This poem – Rape Joke – is arresting and one of her more serious works. It was shared over 30,000 times on Facebook and was retweeted over 2,400 on Twitter – far and away her favourite Tweet. Her poetry may be serious, but on Twitter, she’s in it for the LOLs. She is one of the funniest people I follow, and I have picked some of her best and wittiest tweets. Enjoy!
.@parisreview So is Paris any good or not
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) January 9, 2013
To me watching Sports is like watching a bunch of steaks who came to life & are trying violently to put themselves back together into a cow
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) January 6, 2013
The Human Body Is The Most Epic Bacon There Is. Don’t Sizzle It Too Early In The Hot Skillet Of Premarital Sex
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) December 4, 2012
Took a bunch of drugs and now I feel like a dolphin finger — slick, sexy, and five million years in the future
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) March 27, 2013
Sext: I am a Dan Brown novel and you do me in my plot-hole. “Wow,” I yell in ecstasy, “this makes no sense at all”
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) January 8, 2013
Sext: I am a CD and you play me so long that you discover my “hidden track.” It’s just a bunch of hardcore pig squealing
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) November 9, 2013
I’m A Heterosexual Man And I Am Opening The Door Of This Airplane Because I Want To Touch Some Cloud Tits
— Patricia Lockwood (@TriciaLockwood) June 18, 2012
Alex MacDonald lives and works in London. He has had his poetry published in The Quietus, Clinic II and English PEN and was shortlisted for the Poetry School / Pig Hog Poetry Pamphlet Competition. He hosted a series of readings at the V&A Museum on independent poetry publishers. He is currently Digital Poet in Residence at the Poetry School.
Thanks for this, I was not following her but I do remember Rape Joke, it is one of those poems that has stayed with me. I am off to look her up on twitter.
Just read Rape Joke. I can’t think of anything appropriately powerful to say at all after reading that. I wish there were more poems as powerful, maybe that’s it, what I want to say.
Wasn’t following her but I am now! Thanks Alex