Embracing Literature
Connect with me at:
  • Poetry
  • Nonfict
  • Story
  • Memoir
  • Novel
  • Essay
  • Media
  • MFA
  • Ideate
  • Buy Poetry

Working on my ninth book, back to science fiction..

.

Hi

August 18th, 2013 Mark Roper's Poetry

8/18/2013

0 Comments

 
Mark Roper was one of the mentors at the Carlow MFA Program Residency at Trinity College this summer. He read two of his poems, including the poem “This” from A Gather of Shadows at the welcome dinner, both about dogs and both quite different. He also introduced many of the guest speakers and had a student doing her thesis reading. I tended to hang out with several of the ladies in the poetry group.

In A Gather of Shadow, Mark Roper offers images of “a moment” when the poet, aware, finds a special quality in the world. Many of these poems are in half tone or shades of gray, the colors seen at dusk when the eye changes from the sharp color of day into a netherworld.  Several of the poems speak about the experience of the poet, when they stop and turn to writing poetry instead of continuing about their everyday experience.

In asking myself what I liked about this collection, I found myself examining specific poems and saying, what did Mark Roper do in this poem.

The most inviting poem for me, “Advent”, frames the experience of doing i.e. “Open the door” with qualities that are hard to define. He moves from concrete into idealistic terms “Darkness, Stillness, Silence” that readers connect with images. By capitalizing each, it’s as if he lived in the time of leprechauns or totemic Gods and he were calling special friends among them into an experience. The repetition of this phrase returns the reader back again and again to where they once experienced those three qualities. The repetition also works because of the rhythmic balance of each item in contrast to the other stanzas and visually because of their italics. The result is readers place themselves in the same position that the poet was in at the time of finding the poem.

In the poem “Falling” the experience of the poet and the experience of a swallow are superimposed, one a top the other and back again. The use of start, stop, up, fall, captures the flight pattern of the swallow. The insertion of these verbs at specific places, shapes the same experience even though every sentence is about the same length, again mirroring the flight of swallows, too and from a wire or nest. The initial comparison is from a person awakening to the swallow. Then the poem follows the swallow but then it returns back to the person as they are about to fall asleep, catching that same start to dream or fly, then stop awake, that occurs when someone is napping when they shouldn’t. Because of that, the imagery turns back to the swallow because they seldom sleep, it seems and because their survival depends on getting food and so perhaps they shouldn’t rest. In essence, this poem works really well by combining specific details about the natural world from two different perspectives and playing them off each other as a reflection as well as connection to the other.

Overall, the poems in this collection are very polished—you never stumble reading them, you never find any weasel words, they are simple and clear to understand. They all connect strongly with nature including places like the saltmarsh, lough, St. Patrick’s cabbage, oystercatchers, thrush, swallows and plovers with life along the river, at sea, by waterfalls.

0 Comments

     

    About Sheri Fresonke Harper

    Click Here for Sheri Fresonke Harper's poetry
    Follow Sheri Fresonke Harper on Quora
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Recent Reads

    The Waker's Corridor
    4 of 5 stars
    The Waker's Corridor
    by Jonathan Thirkield
    I’m somewhat of a coward about reading poetry and when I find a collection such as The Waker’s Corridor by Jonathan Thirkfield containing a series of linked poems I am intimidated. But I pressed forward, beyond the impressive thematic co...
    tagged: poetry-books
    Injuring Eternity
    4 of 5 stars
    Injuring Eternity
    by Millicent Borges Accardi
    This is an unusual collection of insightful moments, people, relationships and life throughout the day into evening. Many will find something of value just by randomly opening the pages and selecting something new, including births, deat...
    tagged: poetry-books
    Almond Blossoms and Beyond
    5 of 5 stars
    Almond Blossoms and Beyond
    by Mahmoud Darwish
    These last poems by Mahmoud Darwish are contemplative and have a dislocated feeling since many deal with adjusting to life exiled to a new home. He is an Arabic writer from Palestine and the quiet of these poems almost feel shell-shocked...
    tagged: poetry-books

    goodreads.com

    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Adrienne Rich
    After Urgency
    A Gather Of Shadow
    Alan Michael Parker
    Alcoholism
    Alison Luterman
    All American
    Allpoetry
    Andrew Schelling
    Anthropology
    Ashland Residency
    Ashland University
    ASMR
    A Village Life
    Awe
    Bar Scene
    Beer
    Beginning
    Bill Hicok
    Book Review
    Cajun
    Carlow Mfa Program
    Catholic
    Central Florida Zoo And Botanical Gardens
    Cherry
    Claudia Rankine
    Cm Burroughs
    Comparison
    Concrete
    Contemplative
    Counting Poem
    Creative Nonfiction
    Dancing In Odessa
    Desire Zoo
    Douglas Goetsch
    Duwamish River
    Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Education Portal
    Elizabeth Browning
    Emotion
    Emotional State
    Empathy
    End
    Experience Of The Poet
    Family Poem
    Farmland
    Farrar
    Free Write
    German
    Germany
    Ghost In A Red Hat
    Glossary Of Literary Terms
    Goodreads
    Guest Speaker
    Half In Shade
    Harbor
    Hell
    Hello Poetry
    Heroin Addiction
    History
    Hofrbrauhaus
    Humor
    Idealistic
    Ilya Kaminsky
    Improving Your Poetry
    India
    Insomniac Diary
    In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love
    Ireland
    Irish Poet
    Jain Temple
    Jericho Brown
    Judith Kitchen
    Judy Halebsky
    Kathryn Winograd
    Kim Addonizio
    Lake Pontchartrain
    Language
    Let It Be A Dark Roux
    Lights And Mysteries
    List Poem
    Long Division
    Louise Gluck
    Louisiana
    Love And Other Passions
    Marie Howe
    Mark Pirie
    Mark Roper
    MFA Program Residency
    Music
    Narrative Poetry
    Narrator
    Nature
    New South
    Nobody's Hell
    Norton Books
    Nothing In Nature Is Private
    Omnidawn
    Online Literature Forums
    Online Poetry
    Pembroke
    Phantom Canyon
    Place Poem
    Please
    Poem
    Poems
    Poetry
    Poetry Class
    Poetry Collection
    Poetry Emulation
    Poetry Essays
    PoetryFlash.org
    Poetry Meditation
    Poetry Organization
    Poetry Reading
    Poetry Sites
    Poetrysoup
    Poets
    Post Poems
    Prismatica
    Prose Poetry
    Reading
    Reading Poetry
    Reflection
    Repetition
    Robert Hass
    Romance
    Rosanna Warren
    Rusty Morrison
    Scene
    Seattle
    Sheryl St. Germain
    Situation
    Southern
    Stanford Continuing Education
    Straus And Giroux
    Summer Residency
    Sun Under Wood
    Superimposed
    Tell Me
    The Dream Of A Common Language
    The Vital System
    Thomas Centolella
    Tim Jones
    Tukwila
    Tupelo Press
    Universal Chaos
    University Of North Carolina
    Voicesnet
    Void Of Moon
    Voyagers
    Washington
    Welsh
    What The Living Do
    Wikipedia
    Wine Tasting
    Yarn

    RSS Feed

Search Engine Submission - AddMe
Proudly powered by Weebly