Synopses & Reviews
Gentle Reader. You might like some of the poems at once, but you mustn't be surprised if your taste differs from the rest of the class. If you like the sea, there is a poem on p. 49 to start on; if you enjoy reading about "battles long ago" (even though you think wars today are unnecessary, silly, and violent), go to p.8, or see the stirring ballad of "Weathercock and Firefly," p. 31. If you like poems about nature, you might try "Seaman's Breath"; or, if you prefer humorous poetry, you might start with "The Devil and The Marmoset." And then, there's everyone's greatest joy and incense: "Love Poems," which you will find, like the French, everywhere and nowhere at once, but especially on p. 64 with "A Little Morning After Poem"...
Review
"Mark Yakich is an original....In the unabashedly unwieldy title and in each poem, there are no borders drawn between the commonplace and the metaphysical. There are journeys, crossings, and departures all evocative of the loneliness, alienation, and desire for identity with another (person or place), which, formalized, makes this work recognizable as art of a very high order." James Galvin, Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment of the Arts Fellow
Review
"Zooming between fictive social scenarios and a fissured inner life...these poems jump-start the lyric, blasting it out of stalled pathos, revving it up for all manner of uses narrative, comic, elegiac, erotic." Chicago Tribune
Review
"Yakich's poetry radiates an aura of fresher imaginative possibilities that is invigorating in politically literal times." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Given time to simmer and condense, Yakich's poetry promises offbeat surprises for many years to come." Library Journal
Synopsis
Mark Yakich is an original... In the unabashedly unwieldy title and in each poem, there are no borders drawn between the commonplace and the metaphysical. There are journeys, crossings, and departures—all evocative of the loneliness, alienation, and desire for identity with another (person or place), which, formalized, makes this work recognizable as art of a very high order.” —James Galvin, Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment of the Arts Fellow
About the Author
Mark Yakich has worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and has degrees in political science, West European studies, and poetry. He lives in Oakland, California. His Web site is www.markyakich.com.