Mystery, So Long

by Stephen Dobyns

Thomas Lux has called Stephen Dobyns “one of the very finest poets writing in America today. His poems are brave, ravenous, intensely moving, and utterly his own.” The poems in his new volume, Mystery, So Long, use both free verse and traditional forms to examine life’s complications and peculiar joys, in language that varies from the staid to the hysteric and in situations ranging from the commonplace to the mythic. Humor, surprise, the absurd, and the ferocious are used as so many picks and shovels to further Dobyns’s dark explorations in this powerful collection.

From “Mystery, So Long”

At first, it filled the space around us with holes,
the mystery. It was scary. People fell through them.
There goes Og, people might say. They sang hymns
to the mystery. They pounded on drums. They fed
the mystery both friends and strangers. It seemed
a good idea. The mystery hungered for human flesh.
Oh, implacable and mysterious mystery.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2005

About the author

Dobyns was raised in New Jersey, Michigan, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He was educated at Shimer College, graduated from Wayne State University, and received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1967. He has worked as a reporter for the Detroit News.

He has taught at various academic institutions, including Sarah Lawrence College, the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, the University of Iowa, Syracuse University, and Boston University.

In much of his poetry and some works of non-genre fiction, Dobyns employs extended tropes, using the ridiculous and the absurd as vehicles to introduce more profound meditations on life, love, and art. He shies neither from the low nor from the sublime, and all in a straightforward narrative voice of reason. His journalistic training has strongly informed this voice.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of overt and covert references to Greek mythology in this collection by Dobyns, which for me is a learning opportunity because somehow my studies bypassed many of these stories. Daedalus is in several poems, and they are some of the highlights for me.

“Art bears witness to the possibility of perfection.” - from “Blemished and Unblemished,” which tells the story of how King Minos tried to find where Daedalus was hiding after his escape (and burying his son Icarus).

There are several other poems here that have nothing to do with Greek mythology; many also center on Biblical characters.

———-

JONAH'S FLIGHT TO TARSHISH

His mail, mostly bills, was already being forwarded, and each day his new landlady expected his arrival.
To welcome him, she had painted the spare room, bought a bed and dresser, nothing exceptional— a comfortable chair because, from what she heard,

he liked to read. As a widow with grown children she looked forward to this respectable gentleman with settled habits who might help about the house, hammer the random nail, even carry the groceries, and was it wrong to hope for a greater intimacy,

a companion to share her long evenings? Going out each morning to sweep the walk, she'd gaze past her gate toward the sea. Oh, the waves, the waves— how they rush forward and retreat as if they've just heard a story, which they have chosen not to repeat.

———-

I love this one for the obvious reasons. It’s poem about Jonah that has nothing to do with the whale or Ninevah, but the landlady in Tarshish awaiting his arrival.

[Debra]

Stephen King says: "This is a slim, can't-put-it-down book of — get ready for it — poems. And if you think poems can't be riveting, you need to check this out; your pal Steve would not steer you wrong. Dobyns has written numerous novels (like the well-received The Church of Dead Girls), and many of his poems have a nice narrative line. They are also madly funny and sorrowfully ironic. How can you not like a volume containing a poem titled ''Old Farts' Ball'' or this almost offhand observation: ''Even a certain kind of day/will bring it back, a wet city street, crowds of people/pushing toward some bright moment, the one to make/their lives complete — the wail of a car alarm, a tangle/of yellow cabs, a pigeon in the gutter crushed by a bus.'' It may not be Wallace Stevens, but it ain't shabby. And come on — wouldn't you like to say you got your summer tan while reading not only J.K. Rowling but Stephen Dobyns' new book of poems?"

[Kaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems at the beginning rule - lots of dysfunctional relationship stuff, which I love. Then there's some political poems in the middle. Snooze. I've never read a 9/11 poem that I thought was terribly great. Pffft. Sue me.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsettling book of poetry exploring difficult and dark themes, often focusing on classical myths. While not necessarily a "pretty" book of poetry, the poems here make the reader think critically and often are quite poignant (a poem about 9/11 is particularly striking).

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dobyns is unquestionably a talented poet, but I didn't love every piece in this book. Time to move on with the poetry project...

[Acolyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

sane.