Poetry, exhausted by the heavy burdens of sensitive emotions conjured up by dreamy sentimentalists, today is mostly found on dusty shelves in old libraries, none of which are in Ukiah.
The poems of today are generally the byproduct of overactive imaginations from practitioners who believe the stuff ought be clouded in heart-felt images of near-mystic visions of a (benign) natural world in perpetual struggle with the forces of humanity. These ingredients are commonly mingled with fragile images of dawn, moons, sunsets and sad puddles reflecting gray images of something or other.
No wonder the art is dying, and perhaps suicidal. No one reads a 21st century poet of course, and no one would openly brag of being a professional poet except to avoid admitting being unemployable.
With that as an introduction, ladies and gentlemen it is my honor to present to you Mark McGovern, a Ukiahan I’ve encountered several times among groups of readers. He writes honest-to-Philip Larkin verse and may not even be afraid to call himself a poet.
McGovern’s work is quirky and plain, thoughtful and honest without pretension, and so of course his work must be self-published. I have his latest books, ‘Loose Dogs on the Freeway,’ and ‘BOOM and Other Loud Noises.’
McGovern and I see one another at Writers Read, a collection of locals who gather monthly to read and be read to, loosely organized but efficiently run, by Michael Riedell and Dan Barth.
Participants read six minutes, max, and most fill the time with amusing or confusing or delightful material, in direct contradiction to my usual broad-brush ridicule (see above) which either means local poets are pretty good or I’m flat-out wrong. Or both. Writers Read sometimes features out-of-town poets as headliners, and occasional local stars, which is where Mr. McGovern fits in.
It was Mark’s first turn at the top and he was warmly received. He’s an endearing but unpolished performer, doesn’t wear Italian loafers or a pencil-thin mustache like most poets, but if his books start to sell maybe he will.
It’s difficult to review poetry; extracting a few lines from verse often does violence to the essence of what makes a poem work, but how else convey its spark or insight?
Here, a pair from ‘Loose Dogs’ chosen in part because they’re short, but also because they invite a glimpse into McGovern’s sly wit:
Slip Of The Tongue
When in Idle
Conversation
I blurted out I Love You
Not news to you or me
As we have spent
A lifetime together
Nevertheless
It wouldn’t kill you
To acknowledge
You heard me
And another:
Worms
Complicated is my situation
Convoluted is my plight
To twist and turn and curl
And coil into helix shapes
Curlicues intricate in their
Geometric delineation
They whorl, twirl, loop and
Spiral until I concede they
Know exactly how I feel
Still no one has yet to offer
To help me untangle these
Christmas lights
For a copy of 'BOOM and Other Loud Noises' and/or ‘Loose Dogs on the Freeway’ look no further than Mendocino Book Co. in Ukiah. Happy reading.
Be First to Comment