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Mark Statman reads from That Train Again

I went to Mark Statman’s home in Brooklyn. He shares it with his wife, artist Katherine Koch. They have several dogs, and the dogs, I must say, remained a pretty calm audience throughout Mark’s reading although you might hear the click of claws against the floor, or a sigh as one of them lies down. It was a lovely autumn day as the sun moved from early afternoon to late and the shadows and light grew and changed around the living room, a fitting atmosphere for Mark’s poems that contemplate the moods of a day, its possible directions, secular prayers, precise and calm, “the song of a bird flying ahead of us showing the way,” I thought or as Mark would say, “the poem wings its way/ to where it most belongs/ sometimes that/ is only for a minute/ sometimes someplace/ it shouldn’t be at all/ but a guiding point/ poetry is when/ I write/ something I never/ thought about/ in a way I never/ thought I would.”

Mark Statman reads from That Train Again

I went to Mark’s home in Brooklyn that he shares with his wife, artist Katherine Koch. It was a lovely autumn day as the sun moved from early afternoon to late and the shadows and light grew and changed around the living room, a fitting atmosphere for Mark’s poems that contemplate the moods and movements of a given day, secular prayers, calm and thoughtful, guiding points.


That Train Again is published by Lavender Ink, New Orleans. The painting on the cover is by Katherine Koch. Bill Lavender designed the book.

http://www.lavenderink.org/content/


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