The Sweet Taste of Lightning

Melanie Marttila is a Sudbury-based freelance writer and writing
consultant.

In this, Wilson’s fourth collection of poetry, the reader finds more
of the rough-and-tumble sexual energy that has become the author’s
trademark. The Sweet Taste of Lightning is a montage of chance
encounter, lust, love, appetite, death, and gritty irony, at once
linguistically sophisticated and verbally crass.

The title poem is lyrically provocative, but the reader is reminded in
the main that Wilson is first and foremost a performance poet and a
dramatist. These poems are meant to be read out loud, and not in the
presence of the faint of heart. With that in mind, Wilson peppers her
poetry with visual and aural cues. Some of her efforts (“O Hail Thee
Mighty Cabby,” for instance) have a rhythm that lends them to music,
improvisational jazz perhaps.

Other, more experimental works almost seem to require syncopation to
achieve their full effect. In “She and Her and You and Me Are
Inseparable,” Wilson slashes words and phrases together, then
punctuates them with S.H.E. and H.E.R. Block capitalization and rhythmic
repetition define the flow of “Wishbone at Tate.” Wilson plays with
language and meaning, space and type. There is something new and
different in nearly every poem.

This collection is more a smorgasbord than a sweet taste. The caveat
for the reader here is not to consume too much at once. Wilson’s
poetic flavor is intense, bittersweet, and only rarely cloying. Watch
for appearances by Ginsberg and Bukowski, savor poems such as “Famous
Last Words” and “that crazy cat,” but overall, prepare for several
evenings of fine, visceral dining. The Sweet Taste of Lightning is a
meal to be digested slowly, and one that will leave the reader with a
desire to experience Wilson’s work live.