MARK DOTY

CAREER

LIFE

• Born in Maryville, TN on August 10, 1953 to an army engineer

• Raised in suburbs in Tennessee, Florida,

California, and Arizona

• Bachelor of Arts

from Drake University

• Master of Fine Arts in

creative writing from

Goddard College

MARK DOTY

• married hastily at age 18
• divorced after 4 years,

moved to Manhattan

• met his first love, Wally Roberts
• lived together for 12 years

until Wally`s death from AIDS

• Married Paul Lisicky in 2008,

divorced in 2013

• Taught at: University of Iowa, Houston, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Cornell, MBA Program for Poets & Writers.
• Currently teaches in the Department of English at Rutgers University

• 8 poem collections, 3 memoirs
• Poem collections: "Turtle, Swan" (1987), "Bethlehem in Broad Daylight" (1991), "My Alexandria" (1993)
• Memoirs: "Heaven's Coast," "Firebird," "Dog Years"

• Guest editor for "The Best American Poetry 2012"
• 2013 Judge for Griffin Poetry Prize

“If it were mine to invent the poet to complete the century of William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens, I would create Mark Doty just as he is, a maker of big, risky, fearless poems in which ordinary human experience becomes music.”

— Philip Levine

POETRY

• Whiting Writer’s Award
• National Poetry Series
• Los Angeles Times Book Award
• National Book Critics’ Circle Award
• PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction
• National Book Award for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (2008)
• T. S. Eliot Prize for My Alexandria
• first American to win this British award

• Free verse, elegy, ode
• use of elegant language to portray ideas
• Patricia Haml:
• Doty`s works universal-- serve as"an emblem that springs open for us all”
• compared to John Keats -- works are "poised on exact perception"
• Influence on world:
• discusses topics affecting modern life
• bereavement
• sexual orientation

SOURCES

• Doty, Mark. "Bio." Mark Doty. N.p., 4 10 2013. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
• DSC06360. 2008. Photograph. MorgueFile. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
• Grand Central Station. 2011. Photograph. morgueFileWeb. 9 Feb 2014.
• HandSunClr. 2008. Photograph. morgueFileWeb. 9 Feb 2014.
• Homeless. 2013. Photograph. morgueFileWeb. 9 Feb 2014.
• Hope. 2008. Photograph. morgueFileWeb. 9 Feb 2014.
• Jezequell, Yoann. Cities-New York City USA. 2022. Photograph. Flickr Commons. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
• Kevin MacLeod. Healing. Incompetech, n.d. MP3.
• Kevin MacLeod. On the Shore. Incompetech, n.d. MP3.
• Lacy, Mike. "Mark Doty." The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 6 Feb 2014.
• "Mark Doty: Online Poems." Modern American Poetry. Illinois Edu, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
• "Mark Doty." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 9 Feb 2014.

thanks for listening!

bye.

JENNIFER TSUI

PERIOD 3

MRS. ROUNDY

"BROADWAY"

From My Alexandria, published in 1993

THEME

Love does exist!

(even in sad/desolate/depressing places where it is not as apparent)

TATTERED & WORN-DOWN:

• auditory imagery
• "one saxophone blew"
• visual imagery
• "tattered vault"
• "turned toward the rain"
• "endless flowers & cheap gems"
• cacophony
• "animated knives"
• "makeshift tables"

• Shows Carlotta empathy, compassion by taking her hand
• Description of City:
• "glowing", "crystalline", "second city lit from within"
• in contrast to initial description of city

• Allusion: Hebrew prophet
• Composure
• "Ezekiel" -- "May God strengthen him"

Broadway

Under Grand Central's tattered vault

--maybe half a dozen electric stars still lit--

one saxophone blew, and a sheer black scrim

billowed over some minor constellation

under repair. Then, on Broadway, red wings

in a storefront tableau, lustrous, the live macaws

preening, beaks opening and closing

like those animated knives that unfold all night

in jewelers' windows. For sale,

glass eyes turned outward toward the rain,

the birds lined up like the endless flowers

and cheap gems, the makeshift tables

of secondhand magazines

and shoes the hawkers eye

while they shelter in the doorways of banks.

So many pockets and paper cups

and hands reeled over the weight

of that glittered pavement, and at 103rd

a woman reached to me across the wet roof

of a stranger's car and said, I'm Carlotta,

I'm hungry. She was only asking for change,

so I don't know why I took her hand.

The rooftops were glowing above us,

enormous, crystalline, a second city

lit from within. That night

a man on the downtown local stood up

and said, My name is Ezekiel,

I am a poet, and my poem this evening is called

fall. He stood up straight

to recite, a child reminded of his posture

by the gravity of his text, his hands

hidden in the pockets of his coat.

Love is protected, he said,

the way leaves are packed in snow,

the rubies of fall. God is protecting

the jewel of love for us.

He didn't ask for anything, but I gave him

all the change left in my pocket,

and the man beside me, impulsive, moved,

gave Ezekiel his watch.

It wasn't an expensive watch,

I don't even know if it worked,

but the poet started, then walked away

as if so much good fortune

must be hurried away from,

before anyone realizes it's a mistake.

Carlotta, her stocking cap glazed

like feathers in the rain,

under the radiant towers, the floodlit ramparts,

must have wondered at my impulse to touch her,

which was like touching myself,

the way your own hand feels when you hold it

because you want to feel contained.

She said, You get home safe now, you hear?

In the same way Ezekiel turned back

to the benevolent stranger.

I will write a poem for you tomorrow,

he said. The poem I will write will go like this:

Our ancestors are replenishing

the jewel of love for us.

• extended metaphor:
• compares love to leaves to rubies, back to love
• last line -- "jewel of love"
• love exists even within the city
• contrast with the initial description of city

• Emphasizes irony:
• Carlotta:
• asks for money
• narrator holds her hand
• Ezekiel:
• wants others to understand
• narrator gives him money

• Allusion to previous poem
• Extended metaphor:
• "jewel of love" connected to "leaves"
• leaves fertilize soil & enable trees to grow
• "Good fortune" experienced, "benevolent strangers"
• Love & compassion will return to city