Lyric and blank verse poetry sifting darkness in the author’s life and in the lives of others, both real and imagined.
Description
"My mother said I had it
my father's Black Irish.
She loved him powerfully,
as she did me. Still, I
knew that couldn't be good,
the way she said it, a disease.
But what exactly did it mean?"
— from "Black Irish"
Often in narrative mode and spilled in blank verse, these poems examine both personal history and shifting parameters of social codes of conduct, the tension between the public and private life. They yearn to love and celebrate human connection, but remain aware of the sometimes tenuous, even dangerous, vagaries of perception, understanding, and motive.
Dennis Doherty teaches creative writing and literature at the State University of New York at New Paltz and lives with his wife in Rosendale, New York. His books of poetry include Fugitive and Crush Test.