Morgan Parker's Humor and Language in There are Things More Beautiful Than Beyonce

I appreciate Morgan Parker’s self-deprecating humor as a poet. In “Heaven Be a Xanax,” the speaker cries in the Gap by her therapist’s office, which seems devastating and uncontrollable until Parker wields some humor: “Am I still angry with my parents / for traumatizing me / through organized sports” (lines 5-7). I mean, the line break between “traumatizing” and “organized sports” is a short-lived cliff hanger with some impeccable comedic timing. It is a quick “suspense for the sake of suspense” line break. It’s your classic misdirect. These three lines function the way pain moves as a force through our bodies... pain curls up and gets comfortable, but it makes us hiss in self-defense when someone gets too close (even when we ourselves get too close… we have to laugh-push ourselves away).

I deeply appreciate Parker’s ability to name desire in her own body, which so often for women is overlooked and/or worse, discarded by members of society. Women of color are often portrayed by the media as a whole suite of harmful stereotypes, few of which convey a healthy desire nor strong sense of desirability. In “Beyoncé on the line for Gaga,” Parker claims the space of her body through nature: “You feel me? This booty / is smooth running water.” In the span of two lines, Parker creates motion and texture with a stream… this is striking and powerful to me. Streams are interminable, ever-shifting, quiet yet persistent forces of nature that can carve through the hardest rock. This part of her body is reclaimed and renamed as something deeply natural and tied to the earth.

I love what Parker does with spaces. Sometimes, her spaces feel like bleeped-out words, like what you imagine you hear/read, but don’t actually encounter beyond your mind. Implied language. In “Lush Life,” Parker’s spaces perform a different function. For me, the spaces feel like a hard swallow… the kind of steeling yourself you do when you’re about to reveal something heavy. My favorite white-space is after “I could rot here” in line 12. Rotting is so ugly on the surface, but she renders it beautiful in this line because of its parallel associations: I could melt here. I could die here. I could stay here forever.

Know what else strikes me about Parker? Her language. Her use of sound. I’ll most likely riff on this in every blog (apologies-not-apologies in advance), but in “Lush Life,” Parker wields sound, particularly in the latter half of the poem with the long “s” sounds: “bruised ice,” “self-stirred,” “sleep,” barstool,” “smooth,” “black sand.”

“S” sounds are especially soporific and lulling… I would argue that they are tied right into a universally human representation of water. All you have to do is say “sssss” to someone on a long car trip, and they have to pee. I mean, come on. “S” is water. “S” is constant, a stream flowing. “S” is not a harsh or fighting sound, like “ck” in “mock crowds” or “rrr” in “murder.”

All in all, I am intrigued by Parker’s use of humor and language in her work… it felt accessible and verse-like to read. All you have to do is contrast this with someone like Yeats (if you are feeling ridiculous and up for strange comparisons) and you’ll feel how much more “on the tongue” Parker’s poetry feels than somebody (anybody, especially Yeats) born in the 19th/20th centuries… in terms of form, in terms of tone, in terms of content… everything.