Mark Doty

Mar 21, 2024 | newyorkfolk.com | James White |Jessica Lee |Mark Doty

Our minds these days are so easily distracted that noticing what’s right in front of us can be hard. Yes, the sun might be glancing off the snowdrifts, and the birds may be chirping away with blithe exuberance. But stress, grief, and anxiety—or, alternatively, excitement for the future—can make us tune out the images, fragrances, and noises at the edge of our consciousness. But being attentive to the world is both possible and crucial.

Dec 24, 2023 | 3quarksdaily.com | Mark Doty |Jim Culleny

Messiah (Christmas Portions)prepares to perform Messiah, pouring, in their best blacks and whites, onto the raked stage. Not steep, really,Who'd have thought they'd be so good?

Sep 7, 2023 | terrain.org | Mark Doty

Spring PlantingToday I plant bougainvillea and hyacinth. Tomorrow, crocusand candied pansies. I am gardening, but my mind is tilling. The crows enter my yard. They remind me of ink slabsChinese calligraphers used—not until mixed with water didtheir black ink breathe and broth. Each morning, goat hairbrush in hand, they sat near willows,against a dropping moon, drewall they knew of mist, of hillocks, of lightning behind mulberries.

Aug 10, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | Mark Doty

Downtown anywhere and between the roil of bathhouse steam—up there the linens of joy and shame must be laundered again and again, all night—downtown anywhere and between the column of feathering steam unknotting itself thirty feet above the avenue’s shimmered azaleas of gasoline, between the steam and the ruin of the Cinema Paree (marquee advertising its own milky vacancy, broken showcases sealed, ticketbooth a hostage wrapped in tape and black plastic, captive in this zone of blackfronted...