Love and Fuck Poems by Kodaly Dimitriadis was first published in 2011 as a zine that the author composed in three months as an aid to financially support herself during gigs. Due to the popularity of the zine at the time, Dimitriadis had the book republished in 2012 with Outside the Box press as a deluxe edition book, and has since gained widespread popularity.
The questionable content of Love and Fuck Poems was something of a controversy when it was first published, mainly because of an inability to distinguish between pornography and forms of art that explore explicit subject matter. Where do we draw the line?
The author’s background is worth considering, in relation to the content of this collection of explicit poetry. Kodaly Dimitriadous writes herself, in Overland on the 27 June 2011, ‘I was never encouraged to explore my sexuality and instead the focus was on finding a man to marry. Ten years later, having separated from my husband, it seems that I am now living the years I was denied by my culture.’ So a lot of the poetry, in a strong feminist narrative, explores her own personal sexual exploration and liberation from a time of life that was detrimental to her growth.
One thing is for certain, this collection of words has opened my mind to the possibilities of poetry. What is poetry? Is it simply the intuition, imagination and creative mind communicating itself in the form of words? It would seem that there are no hard and fast rules to poetry, and certainly not in this book. Testing the boundaries of what is acceptable, Dimitriadis experiments with what she can get away with. Vulgar language and explicit documentation of sexual fantasies demonstrate a dangerous, but exciting energy and a lack of inhibition in her writing.
While there really are a lot of positive things to the poetry, the writing at times can be very simplistic. The language in ‘Gotcha!’ is a prime example of this:
Found ya bitch on facebook.
Fucked her page over.
Ha.
Saw her ugly face.
The wedding photo.
Bitch.
Her profile’s hidden.
But Facebook made changes.
Yeah.
Changes.(p.14)
For all its crudeness this kind of writing is powerful enough to provoke a general curiosity, if only because of its immediateness and familiarity to the life of the reader. On the other hand, in ‘How to get a fuck’, Dimitriadis delves into past sexual experiences and warns that:
The only way to get a guy
Is to become one
Let’s not pretend here
We live in a MAN’S world (p.49)
Consistently, Dimitriadis’s voice is powerful and direct. This is a woman who holds absolutely nothing back. Fearless and confronting, she wears her heart on her sleeve as she writes a torrent of emotion, concealed aggression, exposed hopes, wilful assertions and crushed dreams with a passion, gusto and determined approach that is infectious.
Dimitriadis delivers perceptive insights on the power dynamics between men and women, writing in an almost frantic effort to make sense of herself and her environment. Her questioning attitude in the poetry is what spurs a lot of the subject matter on, injecting momentum into passages that might have been bland otherwise. Undeniably, her struggles have been conductive to her creativity and it is the self-doubt, tentativeness and vulnerability of her emotions, so transparent on the page, that makes it all feel so real, accessible and relatable to us as readers.
But emotional content aside, the quality of the writing demonstrates a strong intelligence and skill. Dimidiates writes in a way that isn’t too sentimental but her pieces still retain a sense of rhythm and order. She has this marvellous ability to reject standard academic traditions in poetry, and jump out of the box while still provocatively using language in ways that agitate and engage the imagination. In ‘Define Me’ you can see aspects of this raw and honest writing, which can almost seem like a string of aching thoughts, gems of her consciousness, disjointed and abstract:
Lock me
Go ahead
Lock me
In a box
Smell me.
Is that sex you smell?
(don’t confuse yourself)
Define me.
Go ahead.
Define me. (p.11)
It became clear to me over time that this collection of erotic writing was irresistible partly because of the confessional nature of the works. It can be likened to reading from someone’s own personal diary, the content of which one would expect to be locked away in a cabinet or tucked away under the bed. But Dimitriadis wants us to be nosy – she wants to invite us into her world, and teach us what she knows. There are no boundaries, no limits. Holding ‘Love and Fuck’ poems feels like you are holding the very soul of the author in your hand – there is so much life within its pulsating, heartfelt pages.
If nothing else, the poems are sure to ignite the senses, provoke curiosity or arouse in some other way – not just limited to the sexual, as many of these poems unquestionably are. Vulgar or not – isn’t that what art is supposed to do? Tantalise us, entertain us, inspire us, seduce us, or provoke a response in any means possible. In her own sizzling way, Kodaly Dimitriadis has definitely managed to do just that.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Love & Fuck Poems
Kodaly Dimitriadis
ISBN: 978-0-9872777-0-1
Published by Outside the Box Press
Paperback, 106 pp, $24.95
