A FEW GEOGRAPHIES by MARK YOUNG

EILEEN TABIOS Engages

(Illustration reflects how this is a limited edition 

chapbook of 24 copies, each with its unique cover)

A FEW GEOGRAPHIES by Mark Young

(onesentencepoems.com, 2017)

There are so many endearing elements in Mark Young’s very smart chapbook A FEW GEOGRAPHIES—among others,

its elegant, charming design by Dale Wisely which includes the front and back covers aptly utilizing maps, torn pieces of beige paper evoking landscape or even continent, a cutout of the word “where,” travel tickets and other travel-related paraphernalia,

the seemingly random juxtaposition of words and phrases that nonetheless organically offer a logic (e.g. “Neuilly-sur-Seine” which offers “Recruited from manu- / mitted Uzvek slaves, / the Ambrosia Southeast / Asian kindergarten corps / is a military organization / whose mission is to teach / semiotics & conjugation / models so that Clinton / supporters can defend / & counter the infamous / Trump toreando pass.”),

its absolutely fun wackiness (e.g. “Yellowstone National Park”),

its ease with its knowledge that allows a poem to  move across historical time (e.g. “Corinth” which refers to the Peloponnesian Wars, the (or an) implied current President and “Battlefield 3: Aftermath” in the span of three couplets),

its humor (e.g. “Bunkerville”), and

the deft manner in which lines are broken to enervate the poem, thus sometimes creating wonderful stand-alone lines (e.g. “rumpus over the lack” or “must be vintage or else”) as well as effecting a forward propulsion between the end of one line and the beginning of the next

—that I wanted to write a one-sentence review recommending it because it’s also described as a chapbook of “One Sentence Poems.”

*****

Eileen Tabios is the editor of Galatea Resurrects. Her 2017 poetry releases include two books, two booklets, a novella-in-verse, and five poetry chaps. Forthcoming later this year is a new poetry collection, MANHATTAN: An Archaeology (Paloma Press). For 2017, she also edited the anthologies PUNETA: Political Pilipinx Poetry and Menopausal Hay(na)ku for P-Grubbers. More info at http://eileenrtabios.com