Songs of You and Me: Selected Poems
by William Marr
116 Poems ~ 90 pages
Price: $15.00
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
Cover design by William Marr
Based on his mixed media painting Flight, 1996
ISBN: 978-93-6345-333-1
To Order: Cyberwit.net
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
In her poignant introduction to William Marr’s Songs of You and Me: Selected Poems, poet and friend, Glenna Holloway states:
“His poems, always short, sharp, and well-aimed, intrigued me early on. Never one to milk his subjects, he goes straight to the heart of his and his readers, making his work unforgettable.” Marr’s straight to the heart genius will be my North Star in this review.
The first ten poems feature a common first line:
“Arguing … is pointless.’ These masterpieces of commonsense include … Arguing with the Ocean, a River, the Air, with Sparrows, with one’s Wife, with Bread, with Time, the Sky, with Oneself, the Mountain, the Mirror, the Sun, and an Umbrella. I found these poems a delightful read that had me smiling from the get-go. A couple of my favorites include:
To argue with a river is pointless
it just keeps gushing and rushing
on and on
without even glancing back
you have no chance at all
to interrupt
A consistent feature of Marr’s work is the lack of punctuation. This trait kept me in the flow of his poems … much like the river flow above, Marr’s poems possess an engaging rhythm which enhanced my experience. Another favorite:
To argue with the air is pointless
effortlessly
it surrounds you and occupies
every pore on your skin
it even penetrates your nostrils
to probe your heart and lungs
it’s odorless and colorless
(provided the human race doesn’t pollute)
leaving no trace for you to find
when you exhale deeply with a sort of resignation
it retreats first
then comes right back at you
Concealed within his droll humor, Marr is apt to slip in a personal and often controversial commentary on current events, to wit, (provided the human race doesn’t pollute).
Every poem truly is a song, albeit a brief one. I felt Marr’s music in “Every Gust of Wind is a Poem”:
wind is invisible
yet you know
this gust of wind comes from Siberia
you can see glistening icicles
formed under the eaves right after its passing
that wind comes from a field of spring
the gently floating white clouds
the softly vibrating leaves
the chirping birds and insects
the laughing children
all carry some fragrance of flowers
that window-shaking wind
is to warn you
of an approaching thunderstorm
this moist wind comes from your heart lake
standing by its shore
your old lover is reciting with tears
the love poems you wrote for her
many years ago
This poem reminds me of a rhythmic chant; In my mind, I began to sway back and forth, feeling at one with the world … I was transported for a moment to the church of the earth.
Certain poems appealed to me based solely on their titles. “A Mosquito’s Ode to a Toad”:
With a soft moist tongue
you set up a sensuous trap
waiting for careless little me
to drop in
and be shocked
at the discovery
that I am such
a tasty prey
17th century poet, John Donne authored a famous poem about a flea. Marr’s overflowing imagination ranks right up there with Donne!
Another intriguing title stopped me cold. “Taking Pictures of My Wife and a Baby Panda”:
as if bored with the incessant flashes
he becomes restless on her lap
his sleek fur slips again and again
from her unsettled embrace
frantically I adjust my lenses
hoping to capture another image
before he sinks to the ground
or becomes extinct
*At the Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center in Wolong, China, September 17, 2002.
The centerpiece of Marr’s Selected Poems is the title poem itself. This 12-part poem makes me thirst for such depth of feeling in my own marriage.
Oil painting of Jane Marr in her wedding gown, by artist Weiliang Zhao, 1962
1
I’ve put some
poems
in the icebox
They’ll be cold
and sweet
when you get home
3
I ripped up the passionate poem
you wrote for me last night
and threw the pieces
into a river
now you can never change it
or take it back
8
I broke on purpose the strings
of your guitar
many evenings I had been sitting
quietly by your side
listening to the beautiful tunes
but now I want to see
the graceful movements
of your body
The Selected Poems of William Marr, Songs of You and Me, represent the best of one of America’s greatest poets. His work is a gift to cherish.
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