The sonnet, as a traditional poetic form, has often been used by writers as a means for depicting and paying homage to a beloved. And, given the enduring presence of the sonnet within poetry, it should be no surprise then that many (from Renaissance writers to the Romantics to our contemporaries) have used, broken, and subverted the form to depict queer desire and relationships. From the anthology of queer classic poetry, Hand in Hand with Love, editor Simon Avery comments in his introduction how many poets have subverted “the form’s roots in the expression of heterosexual love in order to speak of same-sex desire” (xiv). This complication of form and theme has allowed writers over the centuries to pen poems of pining, devotion, shame, and beauty.

Drew Pisarra’s Periodic Boyfriends (Capturing Fire, 2023) is a collection of 118 sonnets (and an introductory poem) about various intimate encounters with men, with each sonnet titled and thematically connected to a different element of the periodic table. Every single element is here, and, just like the periodic table, the sonnets are organized by their increasing atomic numbers (so we start with “Hydrogen” and end with “Lawrencium”). While this framework alone would be incredibly ambitious for any collection, Pisarra takes it a step further by forcing himself to work within the formal constraint of the sonnet. And yet, despite these self-imposed constraints, Pisarra’s poetry playfully explores a wide swath of experiences and feelings, making the collection’s specific vision all the more impressive and admirable.

As a whole, these poems read like a diary of desire, as we are invited in to all kinds of intimate encounters the speaker experiences. In the introductory sonnet “The Periodic Boyfriend,” the speaker evokes many of the elements he will be using and provides us with his intended framing of “Love and Sex possess[ing] like chemistries / when [he] surveys his carnal history” (1). Unlike the lofty, idyllic tropes associated with traditional sonnets, the experiences expressed in these poems feel earthy and grounded. The images evoke the senses, a particular time and place, and speak from the body. The connections formed with these men are often ephemeral, and the speaker’s feelings about them run the spectrum, from pure ecstasy to disappointment (with himself or the partner) to something more vacillating or ambivalent.

Read my full review over at Vagabond City:
https://vagabondcitylit.com/2024/03/18/in-review-periodic-boyfriends-by-drew-pisarra/