Note to Self: Look for more poetry by David Mason

The May issue of POETRY magazine collects some verse of the sort that makes me think, "Hmm, this poet seems to know what he's doing, and I'm sure he's doing it well, but it's not getting to me." But one poem rated an "Ah" with a star and a check mark in the corner by a poet with the unfortunate name David Mason.

"A Bit of Skin" tells a story in a three stanzas of regular form (slant or perfect rhymes - ABBACDDC) and then takes off to meditate on it in three more stanzas of the same form. The story is simple: the poet, reading, "furtively" glances at some bare skin on the young mother across the aisle, and gets a smile from her. The meditation, however, suggests more than I've been able to catch - I just know that I'm connecting through his words to something that matters. The final image of all the passengers emerging past the officers and out under "the dark / above the parking lot" is creepier than the rest of the poem, and memorable.

His name is "unfortunate" because a search for him on blogsearch and on Google got all kinds of awful stories - criminals, politicians, dummies. A better search, with "+poetry" in the search line, suggests that Mason is a respected poet, often included in panel discussions and collections of poets' thoughts, and that he is especially interested in poetry that expresses Christian faith. He recently chaired a symposium on Auden. Sounds like someone I should investigate.

Also found a blog devoted to poetry news, choriamb.livejournal.com. There was a reprint of a column by Ted Kooser about people who won't write because they're afraid it won't be good enough. "You can't judge a poem before it's written." He adds this poem about that:

The Education of a Poet
by Leslie Monsour

Her pencil poised, she's ready to create,
Then listens to her mind's perverse debate
On whether what she does serves any use;
And that is all she needs for an excuse
To spend all afternoon and half the night
Enjoying poems other people write.

Leslie Monsour's newest book of poetry is "The Alarming Beauty of the
Sky" (2005) published by Red Hen Press. Poem copyright (c) 2000 by
Leslie Monsour

Note to Self: Look for more Poetry by David Mason | Category: Poetry