Poetry: Mark Young

Mark Young

Defending the thesis

Pertinence. Soft words

hold little of it. Better

to pick up stones to

make your points &

leave the exegesis to

bricklayers. That’s what

they do after all, their

regular lines, offset a-

gainst each other, in 

natural cadence, with a 

start & a finish to it all.

***

 

All the way through

The talk circles, moves from

photo-chemical smog in Mexico

City & on to the University of

Basle where Paracelsus spent

some time. Between & in-be-

tween is the orbit of non-linear

conversation —mainstreet drags

on a Saturday night, the cars

caught in some sort of time warp;

memories of rivers in the South

Island of New Zealand that are a

meter wide in Summer, confined

by a kilometer of gravel, but come

the fresh roll boulders down big

enough to break bridges. That is

the nature of evenings such as this.

Seemingly random, if we touch only

those points that might describe the

circle, but perfectly logical & straight-

line if we follow it all the way through.

***

 

Rapprochement

A bird, a pool 

of water. Walks

around it. Defines 

the periphery.

Measures depth. 

Maybe flies up to

a nearby branch 

to gain perspective.

Then one flight to 

gather insects. A 

second, lower,

washes them down.

***

 

divination

After seeing it 

through others' 

            

eyes, we go back

& see it again 

                   

for the first time. 

***

 

The acidity, the sweetness

Even though we physically can't see 

it, we feel that energy, with its rituals 

of masculinity & femininity, should 

be easy to understand. I've been trying 

to make some money recently out of

this vexing topic of gender inscription

in order to support translation of log-

ging messages into different languages, 

but the noise has been relentless. I've 

now sealed off the water source, & can 

only say to those that have importuned 

me into requesting that the packages be 

returned, it doesn't have to be this way.

***

Bio: Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty years, & is the author of over sixty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, non-fiction, & art history. His most recent books are Songs to Come for the Salamander: Poems 2013-2021, selected & with an introduction by Thomas Fink (Meritage Press & Sandy Press); Your order is now equipped for shipping (Sandy Press); & The Advantages of Cable (Luna Bisonte Prods).

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Setu, October 2022