Party Legend by Sam Duckor-Jones
Having now acquired a church on the West Coast of the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, artist and writer Sam Duckor-Jones is turning a place of worship into a sculpture. While his preferred mediums are either clay or poems, the fact that Duckor-Jones is taking on the transformation of a church feels like a nice segue into his second poetry collection. With an inherent fearlessness of content and theme, in Party Legend (2021) Duckor-Jones explores existentialism in both its largest and smallest forms. He writes in the opening poem to ‘send me to jail if you wish, for I’ll believe in anything.’ (p.12) In reading Party Legend, Duckor-Jones makes us believe, if not in God, then in a weird world where we people use words to make sense of being alive.
‘Party Legend,’ the title poem, feels like being privy to a drunken conversation in the kitchen of a house party. It is equally sprawling, multifarious and at times difficult to understand. There is mundanity, some meaning-making and some really messed-up shit. Duckor Jones writes of popular children’s books and authors (Harry Potter, Philip Pullman), tells tall stories to have us guessing at truths and mentions relatives who died in horrible ways.
Linking to Duckor-Jones’ church project and interest in belief is the way some repeated lines feel almost holy – as though they act as touch stones for a confused sense of identity. ‘The stories are true I’ve nothing to hide’ (p.11) feels like a summative statement for this collection’s opening poem with its air of honesty, no matter the cost.
The statement of intention felt in ‘Party Legend’ where truth rules out all other things, is one that is carried through the rest of the collection. It certainly takes us to some uncomfortable places. Duckor-Jones asks the reader in the poem ‘Follow up’: ‘Question: is everything funny/ or are we better for sadder reasons?’ (p.22) I had to read this line a few times before I attempted understanding it. Are we laughing because we are sad or are we laughing because we feel better? Either way, sadness is the key emotion tying this poem together. The truth expressed here felt like the uncomfortable kind where one sense of the world dies, and another is ushered in.
As an exploration of sadness and humour, ‘Follow Up’ felt like it hit right on the mark as I know that I for one am often laughing when I am sad as a loud cover up for the hurt inside. A poem that is both specific to a certain moment and that also touches a sense of wider humanity can be hard to write. Ducker Jones masterfully crafts poems that do just this difficult thing. He even makes it look easy.
Formally Party Legend feels like a random collection of words, ideas and phrases skeletally framed by the poetic techniques of repetition and rhythm. This is not always a pretty thing, nor do I think that it is always executed successfully. As much as I admire the honest intention of his poems, I found many in this collection to be less than appealing in formal presentation. The repetition of phrasing in some poems such as in ‘The Embryo Repeats’ (p.29-49) felt to me to be both messy and boring. I understand the principle of the literary technique. I can appreciate how it can be used to build tension and develop an underlying heartbeat to a poetry collection. But for me, it felt like lazy writing.
However, an element in Party Legend that was certainly not lazy was the use of mnemonic phrasing which felt like a mantra or a talisman of identity marking moments of existence throughout the book. In ‘The Embryo Repeats,’ Duckor-Jones writes ‘U came upon dancing and saw that it was praying/ U came upon crying and saw that it was living.’ (p.45) These repeated phrases that slowly develop towards a greater understanding of how to live felt precious in their simple wisdom. And again, there is a nice reference to the themes running throughout the whole book where Duckor-Jones explores faith, religion and spirituality in the contemporary world.
Party Legend also features some rather unusual and gorgeous imagery. In ‘Bumper Holiday Mega Quiz,’Duckor-Jones states that ‘The saddest thing about vacuuming is damning all the little bits of shine to an eternity amongst dust.’ (p.58) I will never think about vacuuming in quite the same way again. That is what Duckor-Jones does exceptionally well. He transforms ordinary things and actions and moments into something with an almost brilliant quality to it.
Inspired by ‘Bumper Holiday Mega Quiz,’ in cleaning up after this poetic party, I will be looking for sparkles amongst the dust. I would class some of the poems as dusty in the way of old ideas. Others really need cleaning up due to messy execution. However, there were enough sparkles amongst what sometimes felt like un-organised chaos to make me finish the book and feel it had been worth my time.
Partying poetically with Duckor-Jones feels like a weird night full of repeated conversations with some beautiful moments thrown in too. I walk home from this party as stated in the poem ‘O ’Man’, with the lovely image of ‘a silhouette that howls at the moon.’ (p.81) My wild silhouette, strains at the edges of my being because she is drunk on the world Duckor-Jones presented in this poetry collection. Reading Party Legend has helped her believe better in herself as a human being because she knows there is a poet making something new from old beliefs.
Stella Peg Carruthers is an emerging writer from Aotearoa New Zealand. Shortlisted for several short story competitions, she has also had works of poetry and creative non-fiction published. She works in an academic library.