Year of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Degree Name

Creative Writing (Poetry)

Department or School/College

Department of English

Committee Chair

Sean Hill

Commitee Members

Kathleen Kane, Amy Ratto-Parks, Keetje Kuipers

Keywords

Queer Ecology, Petromodernity, Mental Health, Poetry, Gay Coming-of-Age

Subject Categories

Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Poetry | Social History

Abstract

I thought I could be ridden hard and put away wet, wet, wet. I thought death and rape and drunkenness and unrequited love were functions of a typical life, a this-is-how-it-goes kinda world. But, as I’ve emerged from hellish muck, there has been a realization: the way we treat each other and the soil, the aching earth, needs to change. “A Personal History of Invasive Hands and Endangered Lovers” explores the relationship between intimacy and pain through a history of ecology and consumption, a melancholy of sorts. It amplifies trauma as a call-to-action and refuses to sit and take it. Although full of fracking and forest fires and sex, this collection doesn’t fail to find the small, soft moments humanity will lose if it continues to not be careful. I view the collection as a light shot from a flare gun in the middle of the Atlantic’s belly. Best read with a glass of local booze or hot blunt or on top of a mountain.

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© Copyright 2021 Samuel Paul Boudreau