The Cartoon & Poem Supplement

"OH, DON’T WORRY"

Poems:

“Wallpaper Poem” by Phillis Levin: A sort of commodity fetishism as resistance takes hold – Levin is defending the act of spending “a minute / Choosing wallpaper” as opening a door in time. Deliberately clunky rhymes, slanted as far as they’ll slant, won’t be to everyone’s taste – they’re of a piece with the somewhat affected languor, though. I’m naturally reminded of a certain novella also about gazing at wallpaper, and I wonder if Levin’s reclamation of losing “oneself” in wallpaper could stand an eerier edge, or a sharper understanding of the gender politics behind the acts of looking it exalts.