Thursday, November 12th 2009

By unknown

Sky Gilbert has taken a break from the stage to publish a stimulating new collection of poetry. The slim glossy volume is a lime-green color and an uninhabited pair of tighty-whiteys lies flat on the cover. The title is printed in small black letters across the waistband: A Nice Place To Visit. It is impossible to overlook.

Though he wears many outfits (including the self-proclaimed “drag queen extraordinaire”) Gilbert is most well known for his abilities as a playwright and artistic director. He was involved with the Buddies in Bad Times theatre in Toronto for eighteen years before he moved to Hamilton.

In 2007, Gilbert founded Hammertheatre, a production group devoted to theatre research in Hamilton. Their most recent presentation was a locally placed and unabashedly intimate performance entitled Why We Tortured Him: A Meditation On The Nature of Violence, written and directed by Sky Gilbert. Although Gilbert chose to relocate the play to a smaller theatre, it got a great review in a popular local paper and proved to be a powerful performance despite the early opposition that spurred it’s unfortunate removal from Theatre Aquarius’s lineup.

Like much of his prolific body of work, the universe of Gilbert’s poems is bizarre, funny, and sexual. They assemble a colorful array of different objects from all over the world. Sub-par films, an Uncle’s old photos of Nagasaki during the war, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and Shakespeare all make an appearance.

As if mirroring the array of characters and subjects, the writing style is unusual and never fails to intrigue. Not one of the forty seven poems has a rhyme scheme but some lines are rhythmically driven; others are numbered lists, diary entries, or movie reviews; there are a set of three prose poems near the beginning that are tragic and beautiful.

As a whole, the wide variety defies dedication to any one style or genre. But that is part of the appeal of poetry, the ability to adapt it to whatever purpose the writer wishes, no matter what tradition forbids or the status quo demands. In his own arena, beyond ridicule or reach, the writer has complete creative control. Poetry is not for erecting boundaries but for breaking them down, something Gilbert is familiar with both on the stage and off.

The opening poem follows from the cover. It is entitled “Don’t Sleep With Anyone Who,” and packs three pages of amusing and, perhaps for some, distressful advice on when to keep your underwear on. Arguably one of the best titles in the book begins a humorous denunciation of economic discrimination:  “Why I Would Rather Chat With A Hamilton Crack Whore Than An Old Rich Toronto Lady With A Lapdog.”

Ultimately, though, the main subject is the writer himself. This slim book is a lime-green spotlight into the heart of an edgy playwright. He fills his poems with people from his life, both past and present; with thoughts on sex and advice on love; with his fears, his desires, and his weird sense of humor.

While some of the poems are erratic, and others seem at times to drag on too long, they usually hit the mark. Gilbert’s forays into unexpected territories are revealing personally, and possess an ever-present lust for both the ‘dark and dangerous-looking’ gardeners at his father’s house, and for a better understanding of himself.

In the last verse of a poem called “Parker Posey” the author compares himself to the actress whose name is in the title:

We are superior, awkward, lonely in a crowded room

always on the lookout for a drug that will kill our next child in vitro

always hungrily kissing because we seriously lack self-esteem

and highly, highly underrated

With such honest and affectionate accounts, the reader can get to know the writer in ways that are not possible through his plays.

The collection culminates with the “Queer Manifesto,” which is a proud denunciation of ‘dogmatism and pretentious imbecility’ in defense of the existence of queer. So ‘Say it proudly / We’re all fuckin queer’, and if you want more of Sky Gilbert keep one eye to the Hamilton Theatre Scene and another on the shelves of your local bookstore. There is plenty to go around.

•Matt Herron