The Jill Kelly Poems [Paperback]

In his first book, The Jill Kelly Poems, Alessandro Porco shows a lot of interest in hard-ons and c-cups. His inspiration is Jill Kelly, a porn star from California who has produced more than 200 films with such titles as Sex Safari and The Blowjob Adventures of Dr. Fellatio. Adapting regular metre and end-rhyme, Porco uses his imagination, good humour and libido to forge poems celebrating, delighting in and mocking sex. Here’s “Jill Kelly’s Ars Poetics”:

Breakfast in bed & down on all fours,
You’re eggs-over-easy, munchin’for more;
Vegans protest & brand it obscene,
But there’s no starving my anal queen.

Working-class to the bone, I love my porn,
& at minimum wage it’s all I can afford;
Marxists can lecture & label it obscene,
But they can’t put a price on my anal queen.

No clean-cut air-brushed auto-shop pin-up;
It’s dirt-box zoom-in & spunk on a C-cup;
Puritans can preach & declare it obscene,
But I still love you, my anal queen.

Who wouldn’t admire the rhythmic delight in these lines, especially the jaunty alternating trochaic and dactylic vigour in “No clean-cut air-brushed auto-shop pin-up; / It’s dirt-box zoom-in & spunk on a C-cup”? The trouble is, so what? I mean, should I really care if the narrator loves porn, gets minimum wage and scorns Marxists? Should anyone? As far as enjoyable verse goes, this poem succeeds, which is a real achievement. But to write poems that attract, along with the ear, the reader’s heart and brain, Porco could do with trying less hard to amuse. That said, profundity is probably not Porco’s aim, and his poems succeed insofar as they achieve what he wants for them; they are well-written, metrically inventive, clever, good-humoured and, in places, charming. Besides, he does have some interesting poems. Take “Raison D’Etre”:

This poem includes the word somnambulist
Because I like the way it sounds.
There’s no meaning to be derived by formalists.
Why not include the word somnambulist?
It’s so damn oblivious. I consulted my linguist,
And Dr. So-Shu assures me I’m allowed
To include my mot juste somnambulist
Wherever, whenever: my ear’s mind’s sound.

Normally I dislike poems about poems, but I don’t mind this one because the poem seems less about the poet than about language itself as a source of excitement. “Somnambulist” sounds beautiful spoken aloud, and this delight, this obliviousness to logic, ambition, authority or regulations, guides the writer with “my ear’s mind’s sound.” What a lovely final phrase-the final rhyme of “sound” with “allowed”, an imperfect but definite echo, neatly completes the poem’s music as well as its sense.
Richard Carter (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada

An ode to Christina Aguilera, a love-sonnet for Rambo, and an epitaph in memory of Sharon Tate: Porco's poetry erupts from the page, leaving readers feeling a little bit dirrty, but undeniably wanting more.

"A daring, bright, and downright smutty collection." - Josey Vogels, sex columnist and author of Bedside Manners: Sex Etiquette Made Easy

"Not since Irving Layton has poetry of such erotic gusto and music both dazzled and disturbed me." - Mary di Michele

"Possessing an acute understanding of the capacities of the genre, Alessandro Porco vitalizes contemporary poetry with timely smack." - David McGimpsey