Awkward Hugger
Chapbook, Timothy Dyke, 24 pgs, tinfishpress.com, $12
Laughing at yourself isn’t easy. And it’s harder still to find solace in that laughter. Awkward Hugger finds relief in grains of experience that are both entertaining and painfully real.
At first pass, it’s clear that Timothy Dyke’s voice is wonderfully articulate. Careening around blunt obstacles — drugs, sexuality, suicide, modern relationships — Dyke employs a variety of styles throughout the chapbook’s 17 poems: long-winded, stream-of- consciousness ramblings, anecdotal prose, a framed haiku and a Facebook post. It’s tough to maintain a playful tone while crafting serious, meaningful poetry, but Awkward Hugger finds a way. “The younger generation needs to know the older generation has hope […] I speak for all the gay in rainbow similes / there are no warnings / only stories of the windy twist of morning / like my ridiculous Judy ankle tattoo / Metaphors of sequin/satin and skin”. My favourite poem, “Boys I Never Knew,” talks about listening to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged CD — of death, sexuality and the seemingly shrouded connection between the two. And, of course, about writing about it all: “To die to write about dying to write about the deaths of / boys I never knew to choose the earnest way /a monk’s robe/The naked running girl on fire/stark earnest photo strange fruition/in Texas gay boys/hang from maple trees”. By the end of the poem, focus shifts to the speaker’s personal insecurities amidst the poem’s tragic larger context. Compounding doubt finishes the poem within a phenomenological frame: “I am an earnest writer./I am an earnest writer. I am an earnest writer./I am an earnest writer./Stop. Okay. I am an/ earnest writer. I am an earnest writer./Stop.” And then with intro lines like, “OMG What a Monday,” Awkward Hugger is sincere and personal in more ways than one. Awkward Hugger was published as part of Tinfish Press’ 7” Chapbook series. It’s printed on sturdy colour cardstock and classic printer paper and comes with a handy dust sleeve jacket; a very clean and effective layout, with minimal black illustrations arranged selectively throughout. (Jeff Low)