we are pleased to announce the publication
of marc's second collection simple distraction
marc's poetry imparts a cool sensibility on the everyday - writing
of small revelations & astute recollections his poems are at once both
personal & universal. marc swan is a vocational rehabilitation counselor
living in Portland Maine whose poems have found an international audience
with work published in the small press throughout the US, & in Canada,
Europe, Japan, Australia & New Zealand.(copies of his first collection
in a distinct minor key are still available- please scroll down the page)
simple
distraction
62pp ISBN 978 1 904551 63 8 £7 / $10
Steadfast but never predictable, the poems in simple distraction
engage the reader on a helter skelter journey over the past 40 years.
simple distraction provides the satisfactions of superb work
- James Roderick Burns
orders from United States
simple distraction $13 inc p&p
orders from UK & rest of the World
simple distraction £7 inc p&p
maybe from simple distraction
a simple phone call
to her office
hell o you were on my mind
happy new year
seems easy enough
but what if later
after she's had a few drinks
with that older
man she travels with
the one with the town car
the one old enough
to be her grandfather
she says is just a friend
who owns a trendy
seafood joint by the sea
leased a metallic teal
green firebird
with her name on it
gives her money
to help out
the mom with three kids
she's so fond of
what if after those drinks
probably a half bottle
of clos du bois merlot
her favorite
he prefers martinis
with olives no vermouth
what if she gets frisky
calls me at home
a simple hell o
you were on my mind
happy new year
what if i've gone to the store
for ice chips for my kid
sanitary pads
for the woman i live with
maybe i'll wait till next week
when we plan to meet
at my office for an update
on her life those kids
she thinks so much of
the old guy with the fat car
martini eyes money to burn
-----------------------------------------
30pp ISBN 978 1 904551 28 7 £4/$6
Marc Swan's brave and edgy poems keep faith,
keep pushing the envelope - Michael Laskey
orders from United States
in a distinct minor key $7.50 inc p&p
orders from UK & rest of the World
Azure Night from in a distinct minor key
She flies down the gutter on her belly,
head high, bright red sleeve frayed
and snarling at the wind.
This is not a game, but a chance
encounter with a remarkable ending.
She is barely injured, a tear
in the flesh of her forearm, cracked
bone. It will mend easily
as the red sleeve. I carry
her unaware of eighty-five pounds
in my two arms to a rickety slip
where a man in a Redskins cap
jauntily tilted back off his wide
forehead greets us, directs me
to a cabin where she will rest
while he steers this ancient Chris
Craft over the tumbling water
of Puget Sound. I know his voice,
the tone, the way he says he she.
I think of his last book of poems,
sharing pages with Chekhov,
of his last ten years. Pure Gravy,
he said. And don't forget it.
From this momentary earthly
interlude he will soon return
to the infinite writing retreat
in the sky with Fante, Bukowski,
Breece D'J Pancake – to name a few.
More Poetry Review of Simple Distraction
This is a poet whose themes and interests; women, wine, love, jazz, blues, cars, war, the country – and countries – run like an illuminating thread through his pages. There’s loss, death, sadness, the feelings raw, never self-indulgent nor intellectualised, but containing a tough, wry acceptance of happenstance. His work has a punchy North American feel; a ‘beat-the-shit Gibson’ ... ‘like it’s Fourth of July.’ (November 22nd, 1963) ‘In a friend’s ’69 El Camino on a San Diego cliff...’ (Amazing Grace), and his language, ‘usage’ not ‘use’, ‘natural’ not ‘naturally,’ (even mentioning, in passing, ‘the clipped British way’). The emphasis, as in most contemporary poetry, is always the narrative – there are verse-less blocks of story – often in the present historic (largely a cop-out in prose fiction, rarely in poetry) which complements and strengthens his work. The images are simply and clearly stated, never over poeticised, thus all the more telling: ‘a winter’s breath from the stars...’ ‘a cast of hawks...’ (Stargazer), ‘In the land far east of my beliefs.’ (Wild Bird). I have my favourites: Small Movements, Borderline, Stargazer, One Way Ride, Outlaw. This is a filmic collection, like a story board for a fine road move called American Exotica.