Anna Nicole: Poems By Grace Cavalieri

by Grace Cavalieri

From the publisher of MiPOesias Magazine, a new collection of poems by Grace Cavalieri. Front cover art by Holly Picano-Rogers.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2008

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Poems are Fantasy, but seem oh so Real


At the beginning of the book, these words: "These poems are fantasy." I had to keep reminding myself of that when reading Grace Cavalieri's Anna Nicole because I found myself believing every word and forgetting that this is all imagination -- that is how real these poems are. It is as if I am reading a memoir written in poem form.
In Anna Nicole, Anna is not two-dimensional. She is alive and breathing again. Cavalieri gets into Anna Nicole's head like how an actor prepares for a role and she pulls it off. I can hear Anna Nicole's voice while I am reading these poems. I can see her in the scenes and situations in which Cavalieri has placed her. And I keep reminding myself over and over again -- these poems are fantasy. But it seems as if Grace Cavalieri followed Anna Nicole around and studied her.


"Once she heard on TV that if a man rapes you,
he steals your soul…
That's why she always gave in to men,
so she wouldn't have to be raped, so she could save her soul."
-- from Negative Capability


I asked myself, did Anna Nicole mention this in a magazine or television interview? Or is this all in Cavalieri's imagination? And If so, what an imagination she has. Even though this is fantasy, Cavalieri gives the reader authentic Anna Nicole. She shows the reader an Anna Nicole confused about her role in life (in real life Anna Nicole often seemed confused). In Cavalier's Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole seems to be confused by this: should she be the religious-do-right-by-God woman or be the Hollywood sex symbol? She tries to convince herself that Hollywood is the way to go and others try to convince her that Hollywood is the way to go:


"Trusting a stranger because he said
The Good Lord can't see what happens in Hollywood." -- from Anna's Estate

"The counselor said…
creation is a divine collaboration with God." -- from Negative Capability


However, Anima, Anna Nicole's Alter Ego, tries to talk her into doing "God's works," but "Anna knew only God could do God's works,/and said so." (House of Strings).

In Narcissism Spring, Anna Nicole asks: "What religion overcomes suffering?" It is as if she is doubting religion or looking for a new religion altogether. In Anna Nicole's eyes, Hollywood is a religion. So Anna Nicole turns to Hollywood and fame and success, but even "Success cannot/kill grief, just the body." (Betrayal All Around Her). However, death does not scare Anna Nicole. She welcomes it:

"Death would be so nice,
something all her own
like a baby or the
Academy Award." -- from Tinseltown

"Hollywood is where you go to die." -- from House of String

"Elvis…
dying on the toilet, oh,
so beautiful to die like that, expressing yourself."
-- from Didn't She Almost Have It All

"She wasn't afraid to die.
She'd get some delicious morphine at the end."
-- from No More Lapdancing With The Stars

I believe Anna Nicole would think like this. Once again I have to remind myself that this is fantasy, but it seems so real. Even the other characters in the poems, Rescinda (Anna Nicole's maid) for example, seem as if they really exist. "Anna knew full well…Rescinda would spit/in her coffee" if she touched her man. Luis, another character in this book, is Rescinda's man. We get a glimpse into their lives as well and I find it hard to believe that these people do not exist.

The poems in Anna Nicole remind me of the poem My Date With Elvis: Cybil Shepherd, 1973 by Sandra Yvonne. In the poem, Sandra Yvonne writes in first person as though she is Cybil Shepherd and describes her date with Elvis at the movie theater. Poems like these give poets freedom and let them use their imagination. While reading Anna Nicole I am also reminded of the book M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A by A. Van Jordan about the first African-American girl to make it to the final round of the National Spelling Bee. A. Van Jordan gives her a back story and gives her a voice, gives her life again just like how Grace Cavalieri's Anna Nicole gives Anna Nicole a voice and life again.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is ambitious, intelligent, and hugely imaginative - all of what poetry can be when originality converges with craft. It would have been so easy to mock the zaftig and tragic Anna Nicole, but Grace Cavalieri sidesteps the snark canon of verse inspired by celebrity and offers her subject compassion.

Good lord she needed it. These poems show an Anna that was always on the edge of self-awareness, of knowing how wrong and empty she felt, even as she preened for the camera or hid behind a sleep mask. Anna escapes her lot in a host of ways: vodka and Avitan, but also battles with her evil (and dead) twin sister Anima and the constant lure of dying.

"Death would be so nice,
something all her own
like a baby or the
Acadamy Award,
something no one could take
away from her ever.
She knew what *ever*
meant now. Having something all hers.
She knew now
there was a merciful God."

This is a faux-autobiography, in lines, and it is sad and strange and funny. Lots more to say, but I'll leave it for a longer review I'm working on for a journal. I hope I remember to link it here later. For now, I say buy this book. It's unlike anything I've read in a while.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Nicole : Poems by Grace Cavalieri - Menendez Publishing - 2008 - 978-1434896087 / 73pps / $14.99

Poems, as one would guess, based loosely on the short and pathetic life of Anna Nicole. Her love of fame, men, drugs and her dislikes of their after effects. I’ve always had a bit of curiosity for Mz Smith, mostly why she tried so desperately to emulate Marilyn Monroe...even in her death (though I do hope that wasn’t her intent.) Her own fixation created the public’s and launched her into a fame she had no concept for living. Constantly trying to escape her own life, she used whatever was available at the time, be it drugs, booze, men, or fantasy. These poems are every bit as believable as the tabloids. Perhaps more so, in that they speak in psyche and not scandal.
The second poem, “A TINY BOAT CAUGHT SIDEWAYS,” has the line “the safety of loneliness reached out to her.” but she didn’t know enough to allow it’s embrace, opting instead for the constant limelight and adoration of whomever was available. The star-starved icon of fabricated allure, much like Paris Hilton, known mostly for their impetus to be known.
In “NOTES FROM A DISTANT GLACIER” there are pulls from those that orbit her, extending advice, critique, and clichés. None comfortably juxtaposing with the other. None speaking to her, only at her. It’s no wonder her life was her own facade.

Anna looks out the window
She sees the pink azalea outside. So pretty. That color.
So perfect. It must be fake.

And so it characterizes herself. She recognizes this, yet perpetuates it. She is that azalea.
Even though “she felt dry inside” and accepted that “men took out their happiness on her” she just could not fully walk away from her own need to still be Anna. Unable to separate herself from her own fiction, her own caricature, “her body was making fun of her face” sums her up best.
Each poem animates the darkness concealing her. Haunted by her dead at birth twin, “Anima”, she struggles to win her own mind back from her. Anima’s subconscious presence slowly trickles away, out of her life, taking more and more of what remains of Anna’s sanity with her. A “fade to black” prevails in nearly every aspect of her being.
A constant flux of doctors, men, and assistants subplot her. While they are her strengths, they are also her ruination. Crutches that essentially cause her own crippling via over-reliance and perpetuation.
Her extended affair with a married man appears to be her only happiness, albeit, of course, short-lived. Lonely amongst the throngs, “she thought of all the beds she’d known” is hardly a boast. Each was a search more than a find. It appears death was her only true lover.
Though these poems claim to be “a work of the imagination” and that “any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental, or pure luck,” I have to say that Grace Cavalieri epitomizes what assuredly reads like reality. After all, all fiction is based on reality...eventually.

[Karren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace Cavalieri is a master of surprise. If you think you knew Anna Nicole, you are in for an eye-opening, jaw-dropping read. I think Anna Nicole could be the secret sister of Sarah Palin except Anna doesn't field dress moose. Check out the voices in the poem "Notes from a Distant Glacier." The poem begins with an interviewer asking her, "Do you want to be someone of worth? /Or do you want to be famous?"

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching and spirited look at Anna Nicole. You'll wish you had known her. Maybe you have.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eloquent exploration of the cost of fame in our celebrity-obsessed culture. A wonderful and important book!

[Joseph Milford · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Anna Nicole, Poems by Grace Cavalieri, we encounter a poetic voice which succeeds in giving the troubled celebrity a voice, and in turn, provides redemption for all of us as we are forced to face our own fears, insecurities, fallacies, and fractured identities while exploring the life of a fallen pop-culture icon. Cavalieri treats her subject, Anna Nicole, with love, sometimes tough love, and makes her less plastic or tabloid for all of us. In an age where the idea of celebrity has become so overblown and confused with the idea of reality programs, and in a time when we see our icons rise and fall with almost pornographic violence, Cavalieri reminds us of the human aspect of what is behind the mask, behind the image, that we construct in an age so saturated with media that it can become psychologically and even physically harmful. This book was written with care and admiration for its subject matter, and it sheds a light on a public figure who never had the chance to put her life down in her own words with such eloquence.

[Ksj]

Grace has the uncanny ability to humanize Anna Nicole and expose her innocence and vulnerability when the rest of only saw a sex symbol. This is a fascinating read that encourages you to look beneath the surface of the people that you meet everyday. This would be a perfect book club selection -- imagine the thought-provoking discussion! A must read. Katherine

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far - amazing! My first introduction to Grace Cavalieri. I read about her in MiPOesias. I've become a fan. Love how she inhabits this woman, giving her sorrow and dignity.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems, as one would guess, based loosely on the short and pathos-driven life of Anna Nicole. Her love of fame, men, drugs and her dislikes of their after effects. I’ve always had a bit of curiosity for Mz Smith, mostly why she tried so desperately to emulate Marilyn Monroe...even in her death (though I do hope that wasn’t her intent.) Her own fixation created the public’s and launched her into a fame she had no concept for living. Constantly trying to escape her own life, she used whatever was available at the time, be it drugs, booze, men, or fantasy. These poems are every bit as believable as the tabloids. Perhaps more so, in that they speak in psyche and not scandal.

The second poem, “A TINY BOAT CAUGHT SIDEWAYS,” has the line “the safety of loneliness reached out to her.” but she didn’t know enough to allow it’s embrace, opting instead for the constant limelight and adoration of whomever was available. The star-starved icon of fabricated allure, much like Paris Hilton, known mostly for their impetus to be known.

In “NOTES FROM A DISTANT GLACIER” there are pulls from those that orbit her, extending advice, critique, and clichés. None comfortably juxtaposing with the other. None speaking to her, only at her. It’s no wonder her life was her own facade.

Anna looks out the window
She sees the pink azalea outside. So pretty. That color.
So perfect. It must be fake.

And so it characterizes herself. She recognizes this, yet perpetuates it. She is that azalea.

Even though “she felt dry inside” and accepted that “men took out their happiness on her” she just could not fully walk away from her own need to still be Anna. Unable to separate herself from her own fiction, her own caricature, “her body was making fun of her face” sums her up best.

Each poem animates the darkness concealing her. Haunted by her dead at birth twin, “Anima”, she struggles to win her own mind back from her. Anima’s subconscious presence slowly trickles away, out of her life, taking more and more of what remains of Anna’s sanity with her. A “fade to black” prevails in nearly every aspect of her being.

A constant flux of doctors, men, and assistants subplot her. While they are her strengths, they are also her ruination. Crutches that essentially cause her own crippling via over-reliance and perpetuation.

Her extended affair with a married man appears to be her only happiness, albeit, of course, short-lived. Lonely amongst the throngs, “she thought of all the beds she’d known” is hardly a boast. Each was a search more than a find. It appears death was her only true lover.

Though these poems claim to be “a work of the imagination” and that “any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental, or pure luck,” I have to say that Grace Cavalieri epitomizes what assuredly reads like reality. After all, all fiction is based on reality...eventually.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

While stylistically I found the poems a little too consistent in style, the humanization of Anna Nicole Smith in the poems is heartfelt and real. The inclusion of the semi-fictional element of Anima works here too, but this does feel a bit like a play in verse form as much as a series of poems. Recommended.