Poets Online Talking About Coffee: Sandra Simonds

Why Sonnets?

Because we all want love and we all want to be loved and unloved. Because we all want to be fucked and we all want to be the fucker. But we want to be fucked and loved by time and the gods and that’s impossible because time hates us and so do the gods, they despise our mortal flesh. Because we all want to be beautiful and we all want to destroy beauty. Because there’s an impulse to live and there’s an impulse to die, to procreate, to kill our babies, to suffer, to not suffer, to desire, to be unloved, to be free, to be in a cage, and we want all of that shit boxed up in 14 lines. And then 14 lines ain’t enough so we want more 14 lines so we make sonnet sequences that tell our sonnets stories like ocean waves one after another because we are sadists and masochists. Hit me with another sonnet! We don’t know what we want but we want sonnets. We don’t really want the sonnet. We do. We don’t etc.

Why bikinis?

Bikinis are these just amazing, right? They are sooooo prude and almost the equivalent of the Victorian corset and bring up so many feminist issues! (Do you shave your pubic hair so that you look “better” in a bikini?). Can you fit all of your boob flesh behind those triangular pieces of spandex or nyon or whatever bikinis are made out of? Do you even wear a bikini? Why not go naked? Ohhh because laws…..which brings me to the second reason I love the bikini. The bikini got its name from Bikini Atoll which is where the United States tested nuclear weapons in the late 1940s. Apparently the designer wanted the introduction of the bikini to modern society to have an “explosive” effect, because a woman’s body always seems to be a site of violence, chaos and nonlinearity. I like material things in culture that are able to symbolize all of these conflicting forces and tendencies: the bikini is the law but it also undermines the law, male and female. Ultimately, I hope we can just burn all the bikinis and run around on the beach naked. Bikini Atoll is unlivable after our nuclear tests. I think the contemporary world is basically one big Bikini Atoll. If only we could blow ourselves up and start again.

Why mothers?

I keep getting called a MILF. Like two years ago a male poet called me the “Ultimate Poetry MILF.” He meant it as a compliment. I was like wait a minute that sounds really sketchy and weird. Then about a month ago I told another male poet that that male poet called me the “Ultimate Poetry MILF” and he was like what is wrong with that? I mean you are literally a mother I want to fuck. Then I was like what in the fuck is wrong with these male poets? They don’t seem very enlightened. I mean, it’s not a compliment to me that you want to fuck me, you know? INSTEAD READ MY POEMS about being a mother. Read my poems about the fact that women do more of the labor at home. Read my poems about how women get paid less than men. Read my poems about how many women are in domestic violence situations. Read my poems about single mothers who struggle financially, emotionally and in every other way to try to survive. Read my poems about being stalked and harassed because I have some sort of public presence. Read my poems…..

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