The Beloved

M. Morgan Holmes teaches English at McGill University.

David, one of ancient Israel’s most famous monarchs. Helwig’s
fascinating collection of short poems enters this long tradition. It
engages the topic through a narration of historical events, written with
an awareness of the impact that former depictions of the king have on
present attempts to rewrite such an old topic. The medieval-looking
detail of David’s head by Marc Chagall that graces the book’s cover
initiates the intermingling of the rich textures of political detail and
representational self-consciousness. Through this strategy, The Beloved
transcends mundane events, and asks questions regarding the relations
among mythic, artistic, and so-called “real” identities.

Commenting, in the third poem, on Renaissance depictions of the young
warrior, Helwig coyly alludes to “joyful, naked Davids” who
“posture, display / tight ass, moulded abdominals.” This is not
canonized art appreciation, but a contemporary admission of the
sensuality so many, including Helwig, have found the character of David
to epitomize. Indeed, Helwig suggests that David is a quintessentially
sexual creature, by giving readers ample details of his “vast
inseminations / and careless acts of tumbling.” Helwig’s meditations
on David’s homoerotic appeal, which stems from “the very delirium of
the male / seeing the male” and has its origin in David’s
relationship with Jonathan, are especially interesting, because this
aspect is frequently absent in other versions of the story.

By always placing the personal pain and joy of a very human individual
in the foreground, Helwig strives to ensure that the core of David’s
story can be comprehended by readers unfamiliar with Judeo-Christian
mythology. David “cannot tell the lust of the body / from the music of
his god.” Likewise, Helwig inscribes on David’s body a sensual tale
of a multiplicitous and transformative life, which enables his own
poetics to transcend the particulars of historical time and space and
thus re-create a story that resonates with passions that are still very
much a part of contemporary life.