Turpentine

This masterful poetry extinguishes those artificial lines that distinguish a moment from a century. It is all here and available to us, Mark Young shows. "A late/afternoon/point of co-/incidence // this bench/in the/Botanical Gardens/shared/with Desnos/& Diogenes" reminds us nature crafts consciousness right back at us. "Black cockatoos . . .small white flowers." This against the beautiful political purity of stating the truth in "damp trumpets." Quote from final poem, DAMP TRUMPETS: " Where are the submarines? I shouted out. You promised you'd drain the swamp so I'd be able to see the submarines that were lying on the bottom." Things come together from a distance above, revealing equally how far they are apart. Mark Young's keen eye disturbs predictability. He knows from many angles refutation and commingling. Pachelbel's Canon and mismatched feelings between a man and a woman. Sheila E. Murphy