Away Away - Softcover

Pawlak, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798987924174

Publisher: Arrowsmith Press, 2024

Synopsis

In his triumphant new poetry collection, Away Away, Mark Pawlak casts his precise and contemplative eye over the countryside of the American Northeast. A prolific and widely anthologized poet, Pawlak shifts in these poems from playful and witty to somber and sparse, all with an unerring attention to the details of natural beauty and the hum of everyday life.

Across myriad landscapes and literary forms, Pawlak draws on the minimalist discipline and philosophies of classical Japanese poetry, and transforms modes of everyday writing, from government lockdown notices to checklists. In the Japanese tradition, he writes: "Outside, rainwater / rills down panes; / inside: / window sill, / housefly / dressed in spider-silk." On flowers, in a poem inspired by botanical field guides, his language turns playful: "Yarrow be true to yourself; / don't put on airs like Queen Ann's Lace." Never forcing its hand, each poem guides you to slow down and take in each detail. This insightful collection, rich with allusion, brings us to a deeper understanding of our place in the world and our relationship to nature. Pawlak quotes Brassi: "If reality fails to fill us with wonder, it is because we have fallen into the habit of seeing it as ordinary." In Away Away, Pawlak never falls into the trap of the ordinary, moving us instead continuously towards wonder.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Pawlak is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently Reconnaissance: New and Selected Poems and Poetic Journals, and the editor of six anthologies. His work has been translated into German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, and has been performed at Teatr Polski in Warsaw. In English, his poems and prose have appeared widely in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, For the Time Being: The Bootstrap Anthology of Poetic Journals, and in the literary magazines New American Writing, Mother Jones, Poetry South, The Saint Ann's Review, and The World, among many others. His latest publication is the book-length memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov (MadHat Press, 2021). Pawlak lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is co-editor of Hanging Loose, one of the country's longest lived and most influential literary presses.

Edition details

• Publisher: Arrowsmith Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798987924174
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 106