Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge

three previously released publications now between one cover, recycled as it were, in a recyclopedia, though the recycling aspect has referents as accurate to the puns ms mullen delights in.in her first collected book she cites gertrude stein as gadfly, and i see no reason to look further. the snippets from Trimmings, terse sentences about the clothing and accessories of women, speak to stein's sense of word play. in toto:'Releases from valises. Scientific briefs. Chemists model molecular shadows structure mimic dancers. Shirt on the line, a flapper's shimmy shake in a silk chemise. A shift, a woman's movement, a loose garment of manmade fabric. Polly and Esther living modern with better chemistry.'S*PeRM**K*T (supermarket) continues the wordplay, puns and associations within the same form as Trimmings, continuing her scratching of stein. this time she turns to food in as many permutations as she can cook up. something for the man of the house:'What's brewing when a guy pops the top off a bottle or can talk with another man after a real good sweat. It opens, pours a cold stream of the great outdoors. Hunting a wild six-pack reminds him of football and women and other blood spoors. Frequent channels keep high volume foamy liquids overflowing, not to be contained. Champs, heroes, hard workers all back-lit with ornate gold of cowboy sunset lift dashing white heads, those burly mugs.'Muse & Drudge (either verb or noun or both) takes a cummings' leap to quatrains in lowercase, absence of capital letters is her only comparison to cummings. in subject matter as well as wordplay mullen has her own work cut out with her word associations, the pun and the steps of the assonance, her literary roots go deeper than cummings, tapping into john skeleton more so than her claims of sappho. she cites her title from callimachus. i see the muse and the drudge transcendent from sappho and sapphire as figures to categories. what ms mullen has given her reader in Muse & Drudge is picture of black women historically and internationally.'honey jars of hairskin and nail conjurationa racy make-up artist collects herselfin time for a major retrospectionher lady's severe beautyand downright mannerenhance the harsh landscapepositioned with urban productmule for hire or worsebeast of burden down when I layclean and repair the universelawdy lawdy hallelujah when I laytragic yellow mattressbelatedly beladied bluesshines staggerly avid divaruses of the lunatic muse'mullen's work is interactive and entertaining, highly rewarding for readers who choose to spend time here.

I got this for a class, but I ended up actually liking it and reading it in my free time too. Not too dense but dense enough to evoke thought. If you like this I highly recommend reading more of mullens work! (Also if you didn’t know, I didn’t, it’s “supermarket”. I definitely thought it meant something less PG)

This is one of my favorite poetry books. Harryette Mullen is a master (mistress?) of wordplay. This is a collection of three previously published collections. I am most fond of "Trimmings," Mullen's mini-poems using women's clothing as a basis for alliteration, puns, observation and commentary. "Supermarket" (or "S*PeRM**K*T) does something similar with food. "Muse & and Drudge" is a bit different, a collection of poems that are more song-like with elements of blues although also full of alliteration and puns. The poems appear inspired by aspects of American consumerism, race and women's experience among other themes.

Mullen can make everyday clothing come to life and you will desire a dialogue with them. Whatever you read in the first section (trimmings) read again. After you finish then you realize that you have been given multiple views from the same line.

Mullen's three book collection is vertiginous and virtuosic. Her punning and homophonic-connotative cleverness which stacks her poems into multi-valenced spinning tops dizzies one's head with cloudy turbulence. She should be written multiple "wolf tickets" for speeding. If you don't appreciate this book on a first read, please revisit it at a later date.

It's different the words used. I love to write

Share this book with your poet-friends, family, random people you meet on the street. Avant-Garde poetry at its best. This book is changing my life. Harryette Mullen is brilliant and inspiring!

Strange but in a good way! You'll either love Mullen's poetry or hate it.

Got this for an ex-GF for an English Lit undergraduate course. She liked it.