I first met Mark Weiss in San Diego, where he was running a small press project called Junction. His vast knowledge of poetry, amplified by his ability to translate the work of poets from a wide variety of Spanish-speaking countries, has only continued to accumulate yet more layers of insight into our common journey. I received a note from him today announcing that he has a new book out, and if the entire book is as vibrant as the poetry in the first section, then the 50,000 people who still read poetry in this nation need to make room on their bookshelves for another “must-have” volume. I felt truly fortunate this morning to open up my e-mail and to find the link to the first 20 pages of poetry in “As luck would have it.” “Gravity / is a cruel instructor,” Mark reminds us, but the incorruptible kindness of Mark Weiss’s subtle lyricism redeems those tough landings. I look at my book case these days and ask myself how many of these books I would want to take with me to a room in an old age home, there to keep me resolute company. Mark’s books belong to that select group.
Here’s the link to the first section:
http://www.shearsman.com/ws-public/uploads/223_mark-weiss-as-luck-would-have-it-sample.pdf
Mark reminded me in his e-mail that all of us can orrder from the usual suspects, on both sides of the Atlantic, or from Shearsman.com
Mark Weiss – As Luck Would Have It
Paperback, 116pp, 9x6ins, £9.95 / $18
“This is a barefoot poetry, almost in the very oldest Asian sense of that phrase, a poetry of voice & body that recognizes that even body-language has accents, which surely it does. The eye is keen, the humor self-deprecating. Mark Weiss has reached that point on life’s mesa where forgiveness (to oneself as well as others) may well be the most important of gestures. A book to make you glad to be in the world.”
—Ron Silliman
About Bill Mohr