MARK DOTY

La historia de El Forano y La Forana, te llegará al corazón. Otro cuento 'Cabezudo' para toda la familia.

An account of the poet authors love affair with Dutch art, and the consolations and ecstasies of the objects we gather on our way through life. We begin standing in the Met in front of a painting by Jan Davidsz de Heem: Still Life with Oysters and Lemon. Looking almost more closely than we can bear at this image from the 17th century, Doty attempts to tell us everything it holds, from pigments to forms, and above all, meaning.This confrontation with beauty is one of many that shapes his life, from the pinwheel peppermints that emerge from his grandmas purse in his Tennessee childhood to the cracked china platter that graces the mantelpiece in the home he shares with his dying husband. But it is Dutch still-life painting that seems to have the most to tell him. This book is his record of years spent looking closely at bunched asparagus, translucent wine glasses, curling lemon peel and the bloom on grapes.In a brief, lucid, powerfully concentrated narrative, which tells the story of a life of self-discovery and an avid gaze, Mark Doty writes with poetic specificity and painterly clarity. In his loving description of reality, we begin to see that simply looking can be the most tender reverence.

Mark Dotys poetry has long been celebrated for its risk and candour, an ability to find transcendent beauty even in the mundane and grievous, an unflinching eye that as Philip Levine says looks away from nothing. In the poems of Deep Lane the stakes are higher: there is more to lose than ever before, and there is more for us to gain. Pure appetite, he writes ironically early in the collection, I wouldnt know anything about that. And the following poem answers: Down there the little star-nosed engine of desire at work all night, secretive: in the morninga new line running across the wet grass, near the surface, like a vein. Dont you wish the road of excess led to the palace of wisdom, wouldnt that be nice? Deep Lane is a book of descents: into the earth beneath the garden, into the dark substrata of a life. But these poems seek repair, finally, through the possibilities that sustain the speaker above ground: gardens and animals; the pleasure of seeing; the world tuned by the word. Time and again, an image of immolation and sacrifice is undercut by the fierce fortitude of nature: nature that is not just a solace but a potent antidote and cure. Ranging from agony to rapture, from great depths to hard-won heights, these are poems of grace and nobility.

My Alexandria comprises a series of eloquent meditations on the essential themes: mortality and life, beauty and loss. The collection is haunted by the spectre of AIDS, but is transfigured by Mark Dotys ranging imagination, effortless stylistic skill and huge emotional power.

Mark Doty has always felt haunted by Walt Whitmans bold, new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul and what it means to be a self. In What Is the Grass, Doty a poet, a lover of men, a New Yorker, and an American keeps company with Whitman and his mutable, landmark work, Leaves of Grass, tracing the resonances between his own experience and the legendary poets life and work.What is it, then, between us? Whitman asks. Dotys answer is to explore spaces tied to Whitmans life and spaces where he finds the poets ghost, meditating on desire, love, and the mysterious wellsprings of the poets enduring work. How does a voice survive death? What Is the Grass is a conversation across time and space, a study of the astonishment one poet finds in the accomplishment of another, and an attempt to grasp Whitmans deeply hopeful vision of humanity.

Why do dogs speak so profoundly to our inner lives? When Mark Doty decides to adopt a dog as a companion for his dying partner, he finds himself bringing home Beau, a large golden retriever, malnourished and in need of loving care, to join Arden, the black retriever. As Beau bounds back to life, the two dogs become Mark Dotys companions, his solace, and eventually the very life force that keeps him from abandoning all hope during the darkest days - their tenacity, loyalty and love inspiring him when all else fails.

This bold, wide-ranging collection -- his sixth book of poems -- demonstrates the unmistakable lyricism, fierce observation, and force of feeling that have made Mark Dotys poems special to readers on both sides of the Atlantic.The poems in Source deepen Dotys exploration of the paradox of selfhood. They offer a complex, boldly colored self-portrait; their muscular lines argue fiercely with the fact of limit; they pulse with the drama of perception and the quest to forge meaning.

The darkly graceful poems in Mark Dotys seventh collection explore the ways in which we are educated by the implacable powers of time and desire. The world constantly renews itself, and the new brings both possibility and erasure. Given the limits of our own bodies, how are we to live within the inevitability of despair?This is the plainest of Dotys books, its language stripped and humbled. But whatever depths are sounded in these poems, their humane and open music sustains. Art itself instructs us. Lucian Freuds startling renditions of human skin, Virginia Woolfs ecstatic depiction of consciousness, Caravaggios only-too-real people elevated to difficult glory -- all turn the light of human intelligence upon "the night of time."Formally inventive, warm, at once witty and disconsolate, School of the Arts represents a poet reinventing his own voice at midlife, finding a way through a troubled passage. Acutely attentive, insistently alive, this is a book of "fierce vulnerability."

Fire to Fire should solidify Dotys position as a star of contemporary American poetry. . . . The poems combine close attention to the fragile, contingent things of the world with the constant, almost unavoidable chance of transcendence. Publishers WeeklyA landmark collection of new and published works by one of our finest poets that is a testament to the clarity and thoughtful lyricism of his poemsFire to Fire collects the best works from seven books of poetry by Mark Doty, acclaimed poet and New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs, Firebird and Dog Years.Dotys subjectsour mortal situation, the evanescent beauty of the world, desires transformative power, and arts ability to give shape to human livesecho and develop across twenty years of poems. His signature style encompasses both the plainspoken and the artfully wrought; here one of contemporary American poetrys most lauded, recognizable voices speaks to the crises and possibilities of our times.This essential collection charts a geography of feeling across two decades of prize-winning work:Lyrical Poems: Dotys signature style, moving between the plainspoken and the artfully wrought, finds transcendence in the fragile, contingent things of the world. Elegiac Poetry: Tender, unflinching elegies that bear witness to the AIDS crisis and confront mortality with unforgettable clarity and grace. The Natural World: From a turtle on a back road to a whale in the harbor, these poems find meaning in the startling lives of animals and the evanescent beauty of the landscape. New and Selected Poems: Gathering the best of seven previous volumes alongside a generous selection of new work, this collection is the perfect introduction for new readers and a treasure for longtime fans.

"A beautifully written, hallucinatorily evocative memoir of growing up gay in baby-boom America." NewsweekIn his powerful autobiography, Firebird, Mark Doty tells the story of a ten-year-old in a top hat, cane, and red chiffon scarf, interrupted while belting out Judy Garlands "Get Happy" by his alarmed mother at the bedroom door, exclaiming, "Son, youre a boy!"Firebird presents us with a heroic little boy who has quite enough worries without discovering that his dawning sexuality is the Wrong One. A self-confessed "chubby smart bookish sissy with glasses and a Southern accent," Doty grew up on the move, the family following his fathers engineering work across America-from Tennessee to Arizona, Florida to California. A lyrical, heartbreaking comedy of one familys dissolution through the corrosive powers of alcohol, sorrow, and thwarted desire, Firebird is also a wry evocation of childhoods pleasures and terrors, a comic tour of American suburban life, and a testament to the transformative power of art.

The year is 1989 and Mark Dotys life has reached a state of enviable equilibrium. His reputation as a poet of formidable talent is growing, he enjoys his work as a college professor and, perhaps most importantly, he is deeply in love with his partner of many years, Wally Roberts. The harmonious existence these two men share is shattered, however, when they learn that Wally has tested positive for the HIV virus. From diagnosis to the initial signs of deterioration to the heartbreaking hour when Wally is released from his bodys ruined vessel, Heavens Coastis an intimate chronicle of love, its hardships, and its innumerable gifts. We witness Dotys passage through the deepest phase of grief -- letting his lover go while keeping him firmly alive in memory and heart -- and, eventually beyond, to the slow reawakening of the possibilities of pleasure. Part memoir, part journal, part elegy for a life of rare communication and beauty, Heavens Coast evinces the same stunning honesty, resplendent descriptive power and rapt attention to the physical landscape that has won Dotys poetry such attention and acclaim.

Mark Dotys last two award-winning collections of poetry, as well as his acclaimed memoir Heavens Coast, used the devastation of AIDS as a lens through which to consider questions of loss, love and identity. The poems in Sweet Machine see the world from a new, hard-won perspective: A coming back to life, after so much death, a way of seeing the bodys "sweet machine" not simply as a time bomb, but also as a vibrant, sensual, living thing. These poems are themselves "sweet machines"lyrical, exuberant and joyousand they mark yet another milestone in the extraordinary career of one of our most distinguished and accomplished poets.This award-winning collection finds radiance in the wreckage, exploring:Grief and Healing: A hard-won perspective that moves from the devastation of the AIDS crisis toward a powerful coming back to life. Art as Survival: Lyrical meditations on craftsmanship and beauty, finding resilience in the gleam of Murano glass, the folds of a silk kimono, and the lustrous surfaces of the made world. Love After Loss: An intimate, observant voice charts the journey from elegiac remembrance to the vibrant, sensual rediscovery of love and the body. Elegiac Poetry: Exuberant and joyous poems that dont erase the past, but build a radiant present upon the foundation of memory and loss.

The poignant, accomplished new collection of poetry from the author of My Alexandria--1993 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, 1993 National Book Award Fin

A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the YearWinner of the Israel Fishman-Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction"Tender and amusing. . . . Doty brilliantly captures the qualities that make dogs endearing." -- The New YorkerWhen Mark Doty decides to adopt a dog as a companion for his dying partner, he brings home Beau, a large, malnourished golden retriever in need of loving care. Joining Arden, the black retriever, to complete their family, Beau bounds back into life. Before long, the two dogs become Dotys intimate companions, and eventually the very life force that keeps him from abandoning all hope during the darkest days.Dog Years is a poignant, intimate memoir interwoven with profound reflections on our feelings for animals and the lessons they teach us about living, love, and loss.This lyrical memoir explores the profound depths of love and grief through:A Poignant Love Story: Mark Doty adopts Beau, a golden retriever, as a companion for his dying partner, Wally, beginning a journey of love and survival through the AIDS crisis. Coping with Grief and Loss: When the darkest days arrive, the two retrieversArden and Beaubecome the life force that anchors the author to hope. Lyrical, Poetic Prose: From an award-winning poet, this memoir is a beautifully crafted, unflinching look at mortality, bereavement, and the solace we find in our animal companions. An Unforgettable Bond: More than just a story about the loss of a pet, this is a profound reflection on what dogs teach us about living in the moment, loving without reservation, and facing the inevitable.