Two new poems and a write-up on The Offending Adam

Two poems from "Songs for little sleep," are now online at The Offending Adam, posted with a little write-up by Ryan Winet. Thanks, TOA and Ryan!

On a June 16th blog post, rob mclennan praises the recent work of Nicole Markotić as an “investigation into the sentence.” What is true of Markotić’s work is equally true of mclennan’s poems below. But TOA readers should not assume that mclennan’s investigations into the sentence begin and end with a full-stop: when I say that mclennan investigates, I use the verb with all the baggage from detective films. He turns the clause, the word, even punctuation upside down and inside out.

Like any great investigator, mclennan notices the uncanny in every detail. His poem for Pearl Pirie begins as a kind of exercise. Phrases shift, reverse, stand on their heads. But to call this poem an exercise would take away from its lyrical power, manifested in the evocative and haunting power of the first section’s final sentence: “We are watching the moon we were.” A poetic “happening” or “scene” would perhaps better describe this sort of investigation. For we readers are in the same position as mclennan’s “we,” witnessing the subtle shifts and reversals of a world slowly revealing itself—not for any final clue, not for a final revelation, but for a moment that reveals the profundity of the unexpected.