Description
From the universal to the personal, the formal to the experimental, A Penchant for Masquerades takes an unflinching look at the fluidity of truth, time, identity, history, death, and relationships.
Martin time-travels from the Neanderthals, Lucy, and Big Foot to 9/11, then on to the future collapse of a holographic universe. She mines scientific discoveries, nursery rhymes, biblical characters, and the works of Issa, Horace, Yeats, Frost, Williams, Szymborska, and Collins in poems that are both playful and thought-provoking.
Since she believes re-incarnation is a distinct possibility, she suggests that death need not be taken too seriously (“Re-Entry Interview,” “A Case for Sudden Death”). She riffs on an Issa haiku (“Thoughts on a Translation”), sits down to dinner with Horace (“Notes from a Water Drinker”), and promises literary revenge on a reviewer who negatively critiques this collection (“To the Reviewer Who Missed Too Much”).
A lover of all things poetic, Martin has created an eclectic collection for readers who have a penchant for words and who are open to believing in everything and nothing.
Joan Miller –
Carolyn has a way of expressing the beauty in everything she sees and experiences. What I found to be most compelling when read her latest book, A Penchant for Masquerades, I realized I had experienced many of the same things however failed to see the lesson, beauty, humor or gift in my experiences. To cherish ourselves in our uncertainty and clumsiness and to take the time to thank God for the life we’ve been given. Thank you Carolyn for validating my life through your words that touch my heart.
Jean Harkin –
Carolyn’s newest poetry collection seems more experimental, with trying new forms, combinations, and ideas. But that’s Carolyn– always stretching to reach new heights in word and thought.
As ever she is original and fresh, painting little masterpieces with words. I was first drawn to the poem about “Bob” a PDX shuttle bus driver whom I’ve also met! Carolyn’s poem perfectly frames his personality.
So clever–and possibly true about their “disengagement”: “Neanderthals Were people Too.” And I love the biographical poem, “A Novice’s Weekly Confession, 1964,” and how it ends with the word “unraveling.” And many more for readers with a “penchant” for thinking and feeling.
Mary Jo Kearns, RSM –
Carolyn Martin has done it again… produced another amazing book of poetry! There are several which are fast becoming my favorites, but right now at the top of the list is: For Bob, an Express Parking Lot Bus Driver on the Early Morning Shift at Portland International. She captures so well the character of this caring man – and shows her own caring character as well. You get the feeling some people might write him off… but Carolyn sees the goodness in him. And thought-provoking is To Each Her Saint. How many saints we know, not canonized! A touching reminder! So many poems to reflect on and enjoy!
Melanie Green –
I was hooked right away by the Prologue in “A Penchant for Masquerades”. “I believe failures set us free and eternity/ holds enough time to get things right.” (C. Martin) Down-to-earth with perennials and dinner parties, humor and vulnerability,– and inspiring with science knowledge and literary savvy, imagination and wisdom,– these poems are a most generous embrace of life!