Circumference by Mark Ward
As the 1950’s draws to a close, Tommy Martin receives a telegram informing him that his father is dying and he should come home. Drawn back to Pepperell, Massachusetts, he’s forced to relive his teenage years, remember Mike the boy he loved and come face to face with the family he left behind.
“Mark Ward has named this slim volume of powerful poems Circumference, an apt title given the geological boundaries imposed on us by blood and heart: those things we run from; those things we run to. Here is the timeline of a life, not linear but circular, and the places and people loved and lost and sometimes found again. Here is the poetry of, if not redemption, then reckoning. Here is an understanding that coming-of-age is a process that never stops; that we all are coming-of-age no matter at which point on the circle we find ourselves. Ward has chronicled something aching and timeless in this collection: the weight of the legacies we carry, and the pull of the lives we invent for ourselves.”
–Bryan Borland, Author of DIG
Mark Ward is a poet from Dublin, Ireland. He was the 2015 Poet Laureate for Glitterwolf and was a featured poet in the final Lingo Festival. His poems have been featured in Assaracus, Tincture, Poetry Ireland Review and Skylight47, as well as the anthologies Not Just Another Pretty Face and The Myriad Carnival. He founded and edits Impossible Archetype, a journal of LGBTQ+ poetry.
My Review:
5 Emotional and Raw Stars on Goodreads
First off I don’t read much poetry and find it nerve wrecking to review but it was a no brainier that I would review this book. I read through it so quickly but found myself going back to it a few times to read over. The words flowed throughout, so raw and emotionally and I found them so powerful at times.
Circumference is a 5 star read from me and highly recommend picking it up.
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