Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
LiteratureReview

Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments

written by John Yohe March 25, 2016

Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments by Elise Cowens
Edited by Tony Trigilio
Ahsahta Press, 2014
208 pages – Ahsahta / Amazon

 

Elise Cowen is, was, and/or should have been known as a Beat poet, though like many women writers in that group and time, she was overlooked. Known more now as the woman that Allen Ginsberg had sex with in an attempt to overcome his homosexuality, and the typer of his poem “Kaddish,” Cowen wrote poems as well, though only managed to publish a few, before committing suicide. Alas, according to the editor of Ahsahta Books edition of her collected surviving works,Tony Trifilio, most of her notebooks were destroyed by neighbors as a way to protect her parents from her writings about sex, in particular sexual love for other women.

What we have left of Cowen’s work, decades later, are those few poems published in her lifetime, and poems and fragments from one single notebook, turning Cowen into a modern day combination of two of her biggest influences: Emily Dickinson and Sappho:

[Your arms around me all night]

Your arms around me all night
I woke to find me there
Cramped
Frightened
Not knowing what you held
Cramped Frightened
By the tenderness holding me
And once my eyes opened on
Creation
Tearing through your face
In the act of come,
I didn’t know you looked like that

Alone.
Time.
Everything I love, I need to be
Hides in you.

That we even have a collection of Cowen’s work is due to two men: Trigilio, and Leo Skir. Trigilio shares the whole fascinating story in his introduction, and it’s a strange one: he claims that Skir rescued the one remaining notebook of Cowen’s, and even typed it up at one point, but then sat on it for decades, claiming to be the copyright holder, when in fact he was not. When Skir refused to give up the notebook, Trigilio found a way (he doesn’t go into detail) to get a copy of the whole thing, facsimiles of which appear in this collection, so readers can see where Cowen herself made changes.

I can’t help but think of Cowen in terms of Allen Ginsberg, though I know some readers won’t think that fair, but hear me out: If Ginsberg was who really revived the Whitman-esque style in American Poetry, Cowen could have and would have revived Emily Dickinson. Not that Dickinson needed reviving, maybe, at that point: many poets in the second half of the 20th century would claim her as an influence. Yet Cowen’s style is the closest I’ve read, visually and sound-wise, to what Dickinson did, and I mean that in the way you can almost just even look at Ginsberg and see the Whitman influence, so too with Cowen and Dickinson. The perfect example is “[Emily]” (there are no actual titles assigned by Cowen—titles are taken from the first lines), one of the best in the collection:

Emily,
Come summer
You’ll take off you
d         jeweled bees
Which sting me
I’ll strip my stinking
d         jeans
Hand in hand
We’ll run outside
Look straight at
d        the sun
A second time
And get tan

Looking at the sun is of course one of those things adults tell us not to do when we’re young, so of course it becomes tempting, and so becomes a nice metaphor for sex, and/or sexual love, between women, which certainly back in the 50s, but even today, children get warned against and about. The ‘second time’ implies that the (of course imagined version of the) speaker and Emily have already experimented with sex, and survived, and so this becomes a snide aside, a comment on the know-nothing adults, who were wrong. As they are. The “And get tan” feels like a veiling of what the speaker really means, though Cowen leaves it up to us: and get laid? And fall in love? And be healthy?

Notably, though, with this metaphor is in fact that looking at the sun too much is actually bad for you, which I think reveals the speaker’s/Cowen’s guilt about her desire/love for another woman. Like Dickinson’s short poems, there’s a lot going on here, and hidden.

Trigilio also provides a Notes section at the end of Poems and Fragments, where readers can read about changes, and previous versions of many poems, based on either mis-readings (most of these poems come from the handwritten versions in a notebook, remember) and/or, for example, when Skir chose to seemingly change words.

Trigilio also spends some time in his introduction talking about a couple major differences in poem versions, and how he therefore critiqued them wrongly in previous essays. It’s all interesting, though I don’t think anyone would hold anything against him for that, he seems to feel bad, but really what comes across is his passion (desire?) to show readers how important he thinks Cowen’s work is/was. I mean, this project took decades to put together: this is a labor of love, and a great service to poetry lovers.

I know I’m guilty of thinking of the Beats as a bunch of dudes, but a book like this shows us (reminds us?) that they didn’t come out of a void, and that women were a vital part of the exchange of ideas going on at this time. Kudos too to Ahsahta Press for putting this collection out—also a labor of love, and a useful reference text for future scholars of the Beat Generation, and american women poets. Don’t let that intimidate you though. Reading Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments is almost impossible to read just as a text unto itself: there’s way too much history informing it. But, enjoying it, despite and because, is very possible.

Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments was last modified: March 25th, 2016 by John Yohe
American poetryElise Cowenspoetrythe Beats
0 comment
3
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
John Yohe

Born in Puerto Rico, John Yohe grew up in Michigan and lives in Oregon. He has worked as a wildland firefighter, deckhand/oiler, bike messenger, wilderness ranger and fire lookout. Fiction Editor for Deep Wild Journal. www.johnyohe.com

previous post
There Is No Third Impact: Episode Ten
next post
Kidnapped in Peru

You may also like

Ordinary State: Celina Su’s “Landia”

October 19, 2018

UnAmerica by Momus

June 4, 2014

Review: Anxious Attachments by Beth Alvarado

May 16, 2019

Like A Storm Front

March 6, 2015
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • Lei Yu wow so beautifully written!

    Review – : once teeth bones coral : by Kimberly Alidio ·  January 18, 2021

  • Lisa S Thank you so much for your kind words and your feedback. I can only hope my story is able to help someone who needs it.

    WOVEN: This isn’t love ·  January 8, 2021

  • Ann Guy Thank you, Josh. And glad you didn’t get tetanus at band camp on that misguided day.

    A Way Back Home ·  December 24, 2020

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • Food and Covid-19
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2020 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top