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Underdays: Poems by Martin Ott

Source: Bostick Communications
Paperback, 72 pgs.
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Underdays: Poems by Martin Ott is a collection that seeks to dissect human motivations to love, to hate, to soldier on, and more.  His poems express this search through a dialogue within their lines and between one another, almost like people in deep conversation.  Readers may see this technique as an extension of his days as a U.S. Army interrogator, as Ott continues to dig deeper to find kernels of truth and fact.  He opens with a poem that examines the undercarriage of retirement, what does it mean to retire, how does it feel.  In the poem, it’s clear that there is an expectation about retirement that does not come to pass:

From "The Interrogator in Retirement" (pg. 3)

He wants to love recklessly
but his eyes remain desert
dry, unable to view clear skies
without seeing the curtains,

He examines this new found freedom with a critical eye. How do you move beyond what came before, even if you have no further obligations and you’re beholden to only yourself and your desires?  Ott creates tales that unfold and fold unto themselves, taking readers on winding journeys — much like those in real life that are never a straight line from point A to point B.  His images are fresh and nuanced, and will force readers to rethink their own perceptions of retirement, work, and death.

From "Survivor's Manual to Love and War" (pg. 6)

Death is a loving dog
with no children or chew toys
to occupy its attention.
It will lick you into submission,
this inevitable pack instinct,
to join the vast departed.

He examines what it means to face death and how alluring it can be when things are hopeless, but he also counters these examinations with a look at how much we do to stave off death and avoid it altogether just so we can eek out just a little bit more time with loved ones. Ott’s images will stay with readers long after poems are read, like a man who turns into “a dragon … sucking fumes in motor pools” or the clacking of Salinger’s typewriter on the battlefield sounding “like gold fillings against wet pavement.”

Some poems seem to be about the mundane, like why he doesn’t set the clock in his car or why he doesn’t carry an umbrella, but these poems, too, become something more — a time travel journey with kids or the hidden dangers of the umbrella and how it can die just from being opened.  Underdays: Poems by Martin Ott, winner of the , turns over the rocks in our lives to find the darkness, the humor, and the introspective nature we hide as we trudge through daily activities.

About the Poet:

Born in Alaska and raised in Michigan, Martin Ott served as an interrogator in U.S. Army military intelligence. He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC, and often writes about his adopted city, including in the novel The Interrogator’s Notebook (currently being pitched by Paradigm as a TV pilot) and poetry books Captive, De Novo Prize Winner, C&R Press and Underdays, Sandeen Prize Winner, University of Notre Dame Press (Fall 2015).

Social and political themes are prevalent in all of his books, particularly Poets’ Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network, coauthored with John F. Buckley, Brooklyn Arts Press and his short story collection, Interrogations, Fomite Press (Spring 2016).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mailbox Monday #342

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog.

To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links.  Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

Water on the Moon by Jean P. Moore for a TLC Book Tour in November.

Early one morning, Lidia Raven, mother of teenage twins, awakens to the sound of a sputtering airplane engine in the distance. After she and her girls miraculously survive the crash that destroys their home, they’re taken in by Lidia’s friend, Polly, a neighbor who lives alone on a sprawling estate. But Lidia has other problems. Her husband has left her for another man, she’s lost her job, and she fears more bad news is on the way when she discovers a connection between her and Tina Calderara, the pilot who crashed into her home. In the months following the crash, Lidia plunges into a mystery that upends every aspect of her life, forcing her to rethink everything she thinks she knows.

Underdays: Poems by Martin Ott, winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, for review.

Underdays is a dialogue of opposing forces: life/death, love/war, the personal/the political. Ott combines global concerns with personal ones, in conversation between poems or within them, to find meaning in his search for what drives us to love and hate each other. Within many of the poems, a second voice, expressed in italic, hints at an opposing force “under” the surface, or multiple voices in conversation with his older and younger selves—his Underdays—to chart a path forward. What results is a poetic heteroglossia expressing the richness of a complex world.

Mountains Without Handrails by Joseph L. Sax for review.

Focusing on the long-standing and bitter battles over recreational use of our national parklands, Joseph L. Sax proposes a novel scheme for the protection and management of America’s national parks. Drawing upon the most controversial disputes of recent years—Yosemite National Park, the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and the Disney plan for California’s Mineral King Valley—Sax boldly unites the rich and diverse tradition of nature writing into a coherent thesis that speaks directly to the dilemma of the parks.

The Kingdom and After by Megan Fernandes for review from Tightrope Books.

From Tanzania to Portugal, from India to Iraq, The Kingdom and After charts the 21st-century imaginative echo of empire and displacement in our current moment of terror and globalization. Sometimes written in frank, shrunken lines and other times exploding with surrealist, jurassic imagery, the poems witness an associative mind leaping from bone temples in Tanga to the pumiced surface of extraterrestrial oceans, from a panic attack in Mumbai to the tumbling spirits of the Big Sur coastline. These poems articulate a complex portrait of female sexuality and personhood. Not only excavating the legacy of empire with philosophical rigor, the speaker also dwells in humiliation and wonder, accusation and regret, while trying to envision what indeed remains after the era of kingdoms and kinghood.

Ghost Sick: A Poetry of Witness by Emily Pohl-Weary for review from Tightrope Books.

When a Christmas Eve shooting devastated Pohl-Weary’s community, she began to hunt through the numbness and grief for some understanding and hopefulness about the future.

In the tradition of Carolyn Forché, Ernesto Cardenal and Shu Ting, Ghost Sick is a poetry of witness. It chronicles the impact of violence on an inner-city Toronto neighbourhood, the power of empathy, and the resilience of the human spirit.

What did you receive?