Ssimonds on Joe Massey, poet of "COCK!"

Joseph Massey: Nature Poet or Thug?


Upon finishing Massey’s latest collection Property Line, an important question that emerged for me (humble reader that I am) was whether Massey intended his audience to view him as a “nature poet” or “thug.” Though immediately drawn to the former conclusion, I would like to explore the latter to come to a better understanding of this poet:

Flies sun-
dried line
the windowsill.

measure
what was summer



Lines like “measure/ what was summer” are violent both in their bloody tone and murderous content. They expose a warped mind, encapsulated previously in Eureka Slough, that threatens the reader into submission. He seems to say “You must love this book, motherfuckers, or I will kill you.” The image of flies is obviously reminiscent of flying bullets. And those dead flies on the sill! These lines signal a poet who might, unprovoked, beat up another poet at his reading. Judge for yourself, gentle reader, the following lines:

Bees inscribe the fog
and funnel
into plum blossoms
that barb the abandon lot's chain-link border I think that these lines clearly invoke the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973). The imagery of plum blossoms harkens back to the fact that Massey is half Japanese and do not propel my reading. But anyway! The Texas Chainsaw massacre was a very bad movie but Massey appears to be obsessed with its content in Property Line as seen in the aforementioned passage. I recall watching this film as a young adolescent and fearing “the abandon lot’s / chain-link border” as Massey so vividly encapsulates in his poem about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973). Moving on!

Massey’s Property Line is a confessional chapbook that recalls Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. (In interviews Massey has repeatedly confessed his love for confessional poetry, and specifically the poems of Sexton). I guess the bottom line here, or should I say the bottom Property Line oh hahahah, is that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was made with a mere 140,000 dollars and Massey’s book is less than ten to buy. I guess the bottom line is that for a book totally based on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it’s really great. Go buy it! In conclusion, I conclude that Massey is a thug, not a natural poet.