Tourist at a Miracle

by Mark Statman

Poetry. "It's very rare to watch the birth of a new style. It's like watching through a new set of Proust's kaleidoscopes. Mark Statman has been working for years on a vision of himself and parts of the city concentrated and bare as any poetry. It's hard to compare it to anything except a commentary on the real and the imagined pointillist poems almost without figures and adjectives and false decorations. But it all adds up, like a fire hydrant taken by Rudy Burkhardt, because everything is unexaggerated, convincing as a street sign. He has gotten away from any lyric leftovers, and in his anti-anti-poems he makes a lot of magic and music out of elegies of a city mouse. He has a family, a loved wife, and son, and a past he has a constant politics and is not seduced by the political. He makes us bewildered tourists at his everyday miracle"--David Shapiro.

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2010

Reviews

[John Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Statman is a renowned translator (" Poet in New York: A Bilingual Edition (English and Spanish Edition") and teacher ("The Alphabet Of The Trees: A Guide To Nature Writing") at Columbia University. His re-introduction of Federico Garcia Lorca into the English language was no neat trick, and his poetic endeavors are just as interesting. Reading these 85 poems makes me think of a more concrete New York, if that's possible, one stripped bare of the concrete and seen through with a clearer eye. At times he comes through as NY's Paul Eluard but never degenerates into mere surrealistic platitudes. He is writing about his life, your life, and my life; these are not poems from abstract ether but from the wondrous pavement. In "Kenneth's Death", an elegy for the late and great Kenneth Koch, the reality of death is driven home as well as I've ever seen it done in writing: "when he gets back/we'll be up/half the night/a good bottle of wine/recommended by Sharon/at the liquor store/maybe even one of those/Cuban cigars he'd/stopped smoking/we'll be up half the night/and Kenneth won't/get in/a word."

The language is simple and strips time of a mystical element while also restoring it by virtue of that same simplicity. The transitory nature of life is brought home without excuse: "the baseball season is over/it gets too hard/in September having to deal/with every game every day/the meaning of a win/or a loss/makes it hard to focus/on anything else/like the weather or the newspaper or cooking/in February all that changes/with pitchers and catchers reporting/dusting off winter." This is what appeals to me most about the poetry--the complete lack of pretense which is driven through so mercifully. A fantastic collection of poems and a must for lovers of poetry.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasure, finally!

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just received this from the author himself, who I heard read last night. Great stuff!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I also reviewed this title for New Pages. It's right
here.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh finally!