I met the poet, Mark Scott, in Boulder, when I lived there.
He came to NYC two weeks ago, to read from his latest collection (the title is also the title of this post), at "Sip Lit: A monthly series of readings in a cafe," up in Morningside Heights, Columbia University's 'hood. I drove in from the East End to catch him and the reading.
He sent me a copy of the collection, to be published by Lumen Press. I've never heard of the imprint, but I have heard of the distributing publishing company, Consortium Book Sales, and I know too much about the company that acquired Consortium (I'll leave it at that, 'nuff said). The book publishing world is a very small one.
The cover included the words: "Advanced Galleys." Every time I look at it, I laugh a little. "Galleys," (a term that describes loosely the preliminary printed copy of a book, usually not preliminary at all) are a publisher's typical marketing device. The word derives from classic printing practices.
But "Advanced?" I am used to the words, "Galleys," or "Galley Proofs - Not for Sale," or "Advance Galleys." No past-tense. These galleys were surely advanced to me, but "Advanced Galleys." It's so precious.
Let me say this about Mark. He is deeply talented.
Poetry, to me, is so dense. Every word has such weight. I find I have to read passages and whole poems several times, often aloud, to get a sense for the interlaced meanings, the cadences, the subtle tongue tones that punch an emotion. Mark's good.
A Bedroom Occupation comprises thirty-four prose-poems, and a slim sixty-six pages, inclusive of backmatter blanks.
And yet. it took me almost three weeks to read and re-read it.
Oh. And yes: A lot of it is hot.
I wonder if the names - for he does name first names, in a kind-of epistolary fashion - are the actual names of people he has known in his life, who are now memorialized in his poems? And if so, I wonder if they know, and if they do, how they feel about it. Lewis? Lauren? Cynthia? Mark (unless he's addressing himself)? Janet? Kathy? Is Kathy the same person as Kate? Paul? Susan? Amy? Deborah? Paula?
There are a handful of passages I will excerpt and reproduce here.
But before I do, I am in awe. Mark included a handful of words I have never seen before - or if I did (Catholic elementary school, spelling-bee practice), I couldn't call up the meanings, and I needed the meaning to understand the poetic context. Herewith:
Blazon: To paint or depict (a coat of arms) with accurate detail.
Casuistry: Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead. Oh, I like that one.
Intercalate: To insert in a calendar; to insert between or among existing elements or layers (the primary accent is on the second syllable, btw).
Persiflage: Light teasing or banter (v. Jane Austen, don't you think?).
Monadize (I extrapolate from a variety of definitions and explanations of the word, "monad"): To cause an epiphany (aha!), or inspire as in or with "the spark of life." Peut etre.
I have been running those words through my brain - on my daily workout-runs - or at the office, attempting to use the words in sentences. I haven't employed my vocabulary like this in a while. It's fun.
Anyhow, to the excerpts.
From "VI":
"...That age, according to my father, determined the state I'm in: aroused by danger,/doused with grief, by grief aroused, all danger doused."
From "VII":
"...I had to travel to come..."
From "XX":
"...from cumquat leaves/and blueberry, their waxen surface, gaugeless veins, that fruit bitter, this sweet,/stem-end and blossom-end, plum-seam and peach-fold."
And last, from "XXVIII":
"God's as great a bore as the French/when they say He's brilliant fire, a flaming bore, a suck-hole I serve up my big/first serve. That ace fetters me/for the next point, and makes me partial to energy, rebellion, rut -- and I fall to the net/in toil and double, lose love-love/in straights, obey -- am of rigor without pleasure..."
Holy shit - notwithstanding personal reactions, I read the last pages of A Bedroom Occupation today. That line was contained therein - today - the day of the men's final of the French Open. Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer, on clay, again.
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