Poetry: Mark McGuire-Schwartz - SURREAL!

Flying over rooftops with an alarm clock

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A post from December of 2009. Poems by Mark McGuire-Schwartz are quirky and a bit surreal, like eating pickles and pistachio ice-cream, then going to sleep and having a strange dream. I like this sort of thing apparently as  I have published seven of his poems in Bent Pin Quarterly.

"If your poems were paintings, based on their style, what painter would you be? Are you more Norman Rockwell or Miro?  Rembrandt or Picasso?" This is my stock question during Wed Night Poetry's Q & A.  It's a question that leaves many poets scratching their heads,  but  Mark gave me a truly fitting answer.

"I would be Chagall" he told me, reminding me that I had asked him this before.  Marc Chagall's  odd visions enchant and disorient at the same time, and often show people flying over quaint rooftops, or barnyard animals with luminous eyes hovering at some impossible angle...

Mark has a quirky reading style as well, featuring his self-effacing charm and an alarm clock or two. You can hear him read his work at the Monday Poetry Series t the Stamford Town Center Barnes and Noble. It's this coming Monday and it starts around 7 p.m.

>>>>>Mark has a new chapbook from his own Oy Vey Press... It's called  "Loss and Laughs, Love and Fauna." Sure the tittle is a little surreal, just like the poems it contains.  I got my copy during his reading last week at  Wed. Poetry (which is now meeting at the Blue Z Coffeehouse in Newtown), and I am enjoying it very much.

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Mark had quite a few poems in Bent Pin during its run. The archive was down for a while but is partially restored:
Here is a list of his poems with links where available in the new Bent Pin Archive:

McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 4/2007 NEW LINK Title: Black Coffee
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 4/2007 NEW LINK Title: In Death
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 7/1/2007 NEW LINK Title: Turkey Club
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 10/13/2007 NEW LINK Title: What I've Been Before
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 1/1/2008 NEW LINKTitle: 25 Short Poems
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 4/1/2008 Title: "Is Them Things Called Stars?"
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 7/1/2008 Title: Coatless 
McGuire-Schwartz, Mark -- 11/10/2009 Title: Heartless