Pig Poems

Review by Booklist Review

The simultaneously maligned and devoured figure of the pig is woven into award-winning Sax's latest collection of poetry exploring human history, desire, self-worth, and unabashed identity. The volume is divided into three parts--"Straw," "Sticks," and "Bricks"--in playful honor of the pig as literary inspiration, including in the fable, "The Three Little Pigs." Sax's attention to form is evident in "Experiments September 2001" when the text is inverted half-way through a science classroom dissection of a pig fetus due to the historical impact of the day. Visual elements are also displayed in "Porchetta di Testa" when words of sexual awakening are spiraled on the page, leaving brazen realizations at the center. Other poems point to the pig as cultural artifact as in "Headlinesz," which lists pig-related notes like those found scrolling through online search results, and in "James Dean with Pig," where a described photograph reveals a passionate life and tragic future. Sax's explorations are personal and beautifully attuned to the historical context. Much like the pig, these poems revel in the muck of existence to live in the light.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this vivid, sensuous, and gorgeous third collection, Sax (bury it) considers the extended and various metaphors of the pig in all its forms. By using the pig as both subject and object, Sax navigates queerness, filth, beauty, and capitalism, exploring at all times "the animal yearning/ within the animal within the animal." Sax situates the pig long before an age of wealth, greed, and violence: "pig existed before we had tongues/ to name it." In doing so, they remind the reader that "it's a miracle life existed here at all." These poems celebrate all things that seek to subvert dominant structures, drawing attention to the beauty of messy, complicated states and advising that "there are so many words for you children &/ none of them are dirty" and to "be disgusted into beauty." With tenderness, a critical eye, and a longing borne from the feeling that "i've never been lonelier than i am/ right now," Sax turns their rumination on the pig into a consideration of everything. Finding beauty in the lowest, filthiest things, these poems guide the audience's gaze toward redemption. (Sept.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

While the subject of Sax's third full-length collection (after bury it) is succinctly encapsulated in its title, the poems within expand their reach across a limitless range of human thought, history, endeavor, and identity, all filtered through an explicitly queer, Jewish sensibility. From "portrait of a drag queen with a pig nose" (who embodies "the perfected form of all our darkest literatures smiling") through "xenotransplantation" ("my friend's a vegan with a pig heart/ thumping club music"), Sax finds a shared porcine presence, whether it emerges in a virus ("n1 h1") or in popular culture, as captured in a 1950s Life magazine photo ("james dean with pig"). Sax's most incisive lines spring from disarming vulnerability ("for so long i would not touch myself/ for fear of finding a body") and resistance against irresponsibly wielded power ("a corporation is a synonym for an individual who dreams in rare earth metals"). VERDICT Some readers unfamiliar with Sax's work may flinch at its unabashed sexuality, but the poet's sharp humor, imaginative breadth, and risky candor are expertly tuned to the varieties of human experience.--Fred Muratori

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