The Gardens of Our Childhoods

John Belk

• Publisher: Autumn House Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781637680353
• eBook ISBN: 9781637680360
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Poems considering self, masculinity, and culture through the spectacle of professional wrestling.
 
In this stunning debut, John Belk looks at the world of professional wrestling to excavate the real within the artificial and explore the projections we create, run from, and delight in. In The Gardens of Our Childhoods, the distance between spectacle and reality blurs.
 
Belk uses the spectacle of wrestling to stare deeply into American culture and masculinity, parsing the intersecting threads of patriarchy and gender, and unpacking identity formation and performance. As Belk pries into toxic masculinities, he leaves space also for tenderness, queerness, and resistance to normative structures, opening the potential for love and admiration. Populated by classic and contemporary wrestlers like André the Giant, Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat, Bruno Sammartino, Marcus "Buff" Bagwell, and more, this book is ultimately about the constant deconstruction and reconstruction of our identities that smudge fiction and reality. Like wrestlers in their operatic and winding storylines, we learn how to project and inhabit identities while growing into and fighting against the scripts we write for ourselves and those that are imposed on us.
 
The Gardens of Our Childhoods is the winner of Autumn House Press's Rising Writer Prize in Poetry.
 

Table of Contents

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Dedication
5. Table of Contents
6. Trash
7. Perry Saturn makes ends meet after a failed tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling
8. The Death of Owen Hart
9. Buff Bagwell’s Mother
10. incantation [Fraxinus ornus]
11. Perry Saturn fell in love with a mop
12. The Cauliflower Alley Club
13. Stasiak & Sammartino
14. Stasiak & Sammartino II
15. The Gardens of Our Childhoods
16. Marcus Bagwell’s Mother
17. letterlocking
18. Angle of Regard
19. a business without heart or conscience
20. Hermeneutics
21. bar trivia: good things have to happen to someone
22. WrestleMania XVI & suicide
23. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Mother
24. definition of the continental shelf
25. The Undertaker’s American Badass Phase
26. dead letter office
27. bar trivia: no wrestler has ever used an Annie Lennox song as entry music
28. Jimmy Snuka’s Mother
29. John Cena’s Spinner Belt
30. poem about a dying mall
31. Perry Saturn at a bed-&-breakfast in Katonah, New York, before a January sunrise
32. My love wants a chicken named Eleanor of Aquitaine
33. Razor Ramon
34. Blackjack Mulligan’s Mother
35. The time Vince McMahon tore both his quadriceps while sliding angrily
36. shipletters
37. Madison Square
38. Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s Mother
39. The Fingerpoke of Doom
40. one two skip a few a hundred
41. bar trivia: Venice has been sinking for years
42. Perry Saturn wonders
43. Good Endings
44. Ultimate Warrior’s Mother
45. fanletters
46. for once the best option is the easiest option
47. The Mouth of the South
48. Perry Saturn becomes the first wrestler to board the International Space Station
49. at the top of this space elevator
50. the young immortal plane
51. Olive Saturn & the Third Plutonian Resettlement Operation
52. The Fancy
53. Acknowledgments
54. Thanks

Trash

Perry Saturn makes ends meet after a failed tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling

The Death of Owen Hart

Buff Bagwell’s Mother

incantation [Fraxinus ornus]

Perry Saturn fell in love with a mop

The Cauliflower Alley Club

Stasiak & Sammartino

Stasiak & Sammartino II

The Gardens of Our Childhoods

Marcus Bagwell’s Mother

letterlock...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Trash
• Perry Saturn makes ends meet after a failed tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling
• The Death of Owen Hart
• Buff Bagwell’s Mother
• incantation [Fraxinus ornus]
• Perry Saturn fell in love with a mop
• The Cauliflower Alley Club
• Stasiak and Sammartino
• Stasiak and Sammartino II
• The Gardens of Our Childhoods
• Marcus Bagwell’s Mother
• letterlocking
• Angle of Regard
• a business without heart or conscience
• Hermeneutics
• bar trivia: good things have to happen to someone
• WrestleMania XVI and suicide
• Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Mother
• definition of the continental shelf
• The Undertaker’s American Badass Phase
• dead letter office
• bar trivia: no wrestler has ever used an Annie Lennox song as entry music
• Jimmy Snuka’s Mother
• John Cena’s Spinner Belt
• poem about a dying mall
• Perry Saturn at a bed-and-breakfast in Katonah, New York, before a January sunrise
• My love wants a chicken named Eleanor of Aquitaine
• Razor Ramon
• Blackjack Mulligan’s Mother
• The time Vince McMahon tore both his quadriceps while sliding angrily
• shipletters
• Madison Square
• Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s Mother
• The Fingerpoke of Doom
• one two skip a few a hundred
• bar trivia: Venice has been sinking for years
• Perry Saturn wonders
• Good Endings
• Ultimate Warrior’s Mother
• fanletters
• for once the best option is the easiest option
• The Mouth of the South
• Perry Saturn becomes the first wrestler to board the International Space Station
• at the top of this space elevator
• the young immortal plane
• Olive Saturn and the Third Plutonian Resettlement Operation
• The Fancy
• Acknowledgments
• Thanks