Mark Doty Takes the Stage

by Melanie Payton

The Poet's Voice: A Reading and Discussion with Poet Mark Doty

When I was a teenager I dabbled in poetry writing, filling notebooks with pathetic, sugary meditations on junior high crushes. My writing improved later, but not due to connecting with poetry I read in college. It happened after I read The Embrace by Mark Doty. I was completely moved by this poem, something I don't remember feeling during English class. Maybe I'm a late bloomer. I've been an avid reader since early childhood, but until being exposed to Doty's work, poetry never quite held my attention.

When I learned that Mark Doty would be giving a reading at Cornish College of the Arts on Capitol Hill, I purchased a ticket right away. The event was part of a larger series, "The Engaged Artist," hosted to explore "the dynamic relationship between the artist and the community in contemporary American society." Featured presentations included theater, politically minded films and music, design, and poetry, each intended to show how art can be used as a sociopolitical voice and how artists can make a difference.

Throughout the reading, Mark Doty's eyes were bright with feeling and his gestures animated. His voice was wonderfully expressive, a bit softer during heavier sections of a piece. He started with a couple of poems about New York City, including one from his award-winning collection, My Alexandria. He then moved on to Heaven for Helen and Heaven for Stanley, two poems from a sequence he's creating in response to a panel discussion in Provincetown, MA, where artists were asked to describe heaven.

The last two poems he shared were from his latest book, Source. Before reading them, Doty talked about losing his partner Wally to AIDS in 1994. He chronicled that period of his life in Heaven's Coast, a heart wrenching, beautiful memoir and reflection on grief. Doty discussed how the hopelessness of the early 1990s could be difficult to remember. The drugs we have today didn't exist then and people felt helpless. So, Doty and his friends hosted benefits. Lost in the Stars is about one of those benefits. His final poem was "Essay: The Love Of Old Houses," lovely and bittersweet.

During the question-and-answer session after the reading, Doty talked about how meaning in poetry is found in the space where interior meets exterior. While he hopes his readers take in his experiences when reading his work, he also wants them to be able to reflect their own. "That is the place where art resides," he said. He also discussed the revision process and how writers fear they will destroy what they've created by revising their work. He emphasized that writers must learn that it is okay for a piece to change. "Good poets, by nature, discover something."

An audience member brought up an article about anti-war poetry featured in The Stranger. Another mentioned an interesting point about poets seeing everything in shades of gray, and when it comes to war, those in power want to provide a one-dimensional, black-and-white message. Doty said that though the author of The Stranger article was right in saying that poetry doesn't cause action, it does in fact do something. According to Doty, poetry makes connections, sparks other poems, and provides a vocabulary of terms with which to view experiences. He wrote a statement of conscience for Poets Against the War and talked about the reading held at Lincoln Center, "Poems Not Fit for the White House."

Although he never intended to be a political poet, Doty said the "advent of the epidemic" changed everything. He wrote about what was happening in his life. He did not feel that his sole responsibility was to be an AIDS spokesperson, but rather he was vehemently "trying to name something named in inhumane terms."

Doty referred to writing about his partner's death and discussed how distance makes creation possible. Time isn't the only way to measure distance. Sometimes it is the space between the outpouring of writing and the beginning of editing. Six weeks after Wally's death, Doty began to write about grief. When he began to tweak and edit the piece, that was his distance.

He wrapped up the evening by talking about power. Doty said that by speaking to schools and giving readings he can have an effect on people. A poet has power "when a life described creates opportunity for that life to be seen." Doty's influence can also be found at the University of Houston, where he serves as an educator and mentor in their Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

When I walked home after the event that night, I felt the effect of a poet. The lights on Broadway shone a little brighter, the inhabitants were slightly more colorful, and the air was a bit cooler.

If you ever have the chance to attend a reading by Mark Doty, don't miss it. It will be amazing.

Melanie Payton is the Communications Coordinator for Seattle Writergrrls. She writes essays, reviews, and fiction. She lives in Seattle and reads constantly.