About the Poems - CP
About the Poems
by Catherine Paquette These poems are what I call ‘suckers’. They are part of a collection called, see you in hell—suckers. They generally concern themselves with binaries, dichotomies, blacks and whites. They are an attempt to call attention to the categories we box ourselves into. I use humor and high-pitched subject matter to do this. Extremes. Go all the way. Hit opposing poles simultaneously to create an ironic and irreverent atmosphere. More on this: Black and white categories are dramatic. Ridiculous in their rigidity. Let’s laugh. I demand it. At: good/bad; love/hate; life/death; heaven/hell; virtue /sin… Then, let’s be really grey and confuse things. Let’s stare hell in the face, laugh, then ask what the hell!? Let’s disorganize and complicate our great divides. Let’s be self-conscious by indulging our ‘this and that’s’ to the max. From the sinner’s place underground, let’s bring hell above ground, where it is not only a place, but a state of mind to be reexamined, then refigured. More specifically: These five suckers concern themselves with not being in-between. There is love and hate. There is bad and good. There is like and dislike. ‘I was once this, now I am that.’ There is little room for disorder here, ironically, of course. The bottom line: I’m not a cat person, by image. I’m a heavy meat-eater. Whisky-drinker; beer chaser. Electric guitar solo. Thunderstorm motorcyclist. I live hard; think harder. In a nutshell: see you in hell—suckers.