"Okay so I'm Black in America right now and I walk into a bar." This is classic Morgan Parker (Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night), who tackles weighty issues with deft wit and powerful candor, as in this wry line from the first poem in There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, Parker's insightful and irreverent collection of poetry exploring race, sex, womanhood and popular culture.
Parker's poems turn a sharp eye toward a broad collage of subjects, including her muse Beyoncé, the Obamas and historical figures like the so-called Hottentot Venus. Topical references abound, as do nods to other poets. Her pop-culture reimagining "Freaky Friday Starring Beyoncé and Lady Gaga" precedes a riff on Wallace Stevens in "13 Ways of Looking at a Black Girl." In "We Don't Know When We Were Opened (or, The Origin of the Universe)," Parker echoes Gwendolyn Brooks: "We better homes and gardens./ We real grown. We garden of soiled panties."
Parker borrows one poem's title from Beyoncé's husband, Jay-Z, "99 Problems," compiling a literal problem list. Among them: "16. Oppression," "36-42. American History" and "86. My dog eats a lipstick." Parker uses her signature humor throughout, but the laughs are never cheap; the stakes are too high. Parker begins "White Beyoncé" with the droll introduction "Sneezed on the beat/ and blessed herself," but slays in the closing lines: "Her daughter learns about beauty/ Discovers nothing surprising."
This collection pairs well with Beyoncé's music, but Parker's poems sing just as impressively unaccompanied. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer