Wonderment: Susan Holbrook, Joy is So Exhausting

Chris Koenig-Woodyard

Trying to give shape to my thoughts on Susan Holbrook’s Joy is So Exhausting (2009), I took a
cue from “Good Egg/Bad Seed”:

You think the only way to respond to a poem is to write another poem or you think the
only
way to respond to a poem is to run the other way. (20)

In the spirit of Holbrook’s malapropistic romp about tampon instructions in “INSERT,” I decided to write
a poem that parodied the instructions on a condom package. I tired of the homonymic play of penis,
condom, and vagina with pianist, con man and Regina, feeling some narratological anxiety—that I had to
have a story that explored when, why, and how the pianist and con man insisted on going to Regina.

Instead, I took the “other way”—a more conventional approach to three issues that captured
theme and poetics in Holbrook (Canada, love, and poetry/the poet) with a fourth on humour that ties these
together:

1] Canada. I liked the tension between the local, and the Canadian, on the hand, and the mythological
and literary luminaries, on the other. There are distinctly Canadian people, places, and references:
Stephen Harper, Joe Clark, Stockwell Day, Peter Mansbridge, the Calgary Zoo and a Zehrs Grocery
Store. The literary and mythological includes Catullus, Ginsberg, Gloria Steinem, Gertrude Stein, The
Ramones, and Lorca. A self-aware, self-deprecating Canadian-ness shines through in the humour of
“”Memoirs of a Canada Visiting Writers hostess, in which Holbrook offers a role call of archetypal
Canadian writers, who include

The one who kept reminding is he had been ‘much anthologized’ as if ‘anthologized’
meant
‘knighted.’
The one whose entire reading consisted of standing at the podium, reading poems silently
to
herself, chuckling, flipping to the next one.

And

The one who suffered from loud, nervous farting, especially between poems, though he
capitalized, most studiously, on the camouflage of short bursts of applauses.
The one who obstinately read from new work, aware we were all there to hear the
greatest
hits.
The one who always read final lines as if our lives
depended
on
them. (38-39)
2] Love. I like the tension, the to and fro, the tussle and rustle of love and lust. In “Editing the Erotica
Issue,” the prosaic and poetic, the erotic with the ordinary collide in the humorous sexual romp of Richard
(Dick) and Regina (Vagina):

Her skirt had a stuffed look, which could only mean she was wearing ruffled panties.
Oh, nutritious mound of sprouts.
Richard and Regina had been friends for a long time.
Dear editors: When I saw you were doing an erotica issue, I thought, woodylicious!
And in the velour pantsuit of evening, even the sandflies laughed to see their joy.
Richard throbbed. Regina glistened.”(10)

There is, as I mentioned, the malapropistic explosion that is “Insert,” but also more tonally subtle humour
pieces like the apostrophe “To Chocolate”:

If I knew the world was going to end in two hours,

I would eat a tub of you ice cream. I would also smoke, call

and tell my family goodbye, play with my baby like nothing’s

different. I like chips of you, bars of you, whole bunnies of

you. In the sixth grade I was horrified to see you in the shape
of a penis and scrotum in Sheila’s mum’s freezer. It had come

from her mum’s boyfriend who also made sterling silver puzzle
necklaces where the letters in JESUS fit together to make a cross.

3] Poetry/The Poet I like the playful ribbing of poetry, the poetic, and poets that runs throughout Joy is
so Exhausting. “Poetsmart” captures this in the piece’s opening stanza:

Juts like people, poets can develop unhealthy, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous
habits. Poets are cute but, let’s face it, they can disrupt a household. Like children, they
need guidance and discipline to live happily and healthily with the ‘adults’ in their lives.
From fundamental manners to problem solving, anything is possible with a good
education.