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lesser case ยท Mark Decarteret
$18.00
Mark DeCarteretโs imagination is a cosmos. For years, I have delighted in exploring the enormity of it. Here, he reveals its deeper axioms, and shows us how to comprehend its immensity through the measured, concentrated, stillness of wisdom. This is a master poet at the height of his creative power.
โ William Varner, author of Leaving Erebusย
Read excerpts
the kingfisher
to Charles Olson
once the blue flame
had caught in my throat โ
a hundred years of having cross-
walked through the thorn & the turbine
indoctrinated w/every windโs whim
dribbled out on my bib
in a luxurious rust:
not one death but many
the sun the same failure
that some golden age once had tested for
while out in the courtyard
w/their knees bruised & bent
so exquisitely backwards
a sentence they eventually survive
w/eyedroppers of mettle & irony
I hunt among stones
where the shadows have long been
trying to enter their side of our story
practice
to Bill Knott
lately Iโm good for maybe
five or six lines
then ellipses:
these tiniest of stones
reminding me
how the poet in front of
the white page
always makes for
the most obvious of targets
that unspeakable hour
to Gary Widger
noon & the clouds collideย
noon & some sun but not
eyed or even owed its own lineย
noon went on & on & on, no?
noon thereโs more hell
in the telling of it
noon I wonโt abide in your chill anymore
noon Iโm no longer emboldened
by my own sighs or anyone elseโsย
noon because your lightโs such a hard sell
noon & gone is the frost
that interpreted the world
noon it wasnโt the cold that I lied
noon where Iโve confided
the last of my farewells
noon how my bones have always tried me
noon & Iโve shut my eyes
on all that I held dear
noon where even death sleeps off time
decoys
itโs the animalโs way of saying
youโre welcome or lookee right here
at these worms made of sticks
& these deer made of sticks too
unlike when their words came in bunches
dropped like babies on the new snow
or were arranged in the sky like some
cherub w/the chubbiest of cheeks
now this one hereโs lit from within
while those others are bowed
their hair blown by some engine
or are each of their heads now a hat?
& next come the boats again
bringing w/them that new day
when our throats will be blest w/more vowels
& weโll sic the best of our gods on them again
About the Author
Mark DeCarteret has appeared next to Charles Bukowski in a lo-fi fold out, Pope John Paul II in a high-test collection of Catholic poetry, Billy Collins in an Italian fashion coffee table book, and Mary Oliver in a 3785 page pirated lit-trap. โ Nixes Mate published his book, For Lack of a Calling in 2018.ย

REVIEWS + INTERVIEWS + MEDIA
Copyright ยฉ 2021ย Mark DeCarteret
Cover design by d’Entremont
ISBNย 978-1-949279-30-6
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.