Lockdown Letters & Other Poems by Paul Marion is a rewarding collection that could have been issued successfully as several books, but together in one volume, the 170-plus pages of poems supply an engaging variety of themes and formats—from pandemic lockdown to tropical vacation spots to space exploration to poetry faceoffs over playoff hockey—and much more.
Most notably, Marion has reinvented the epistolary poem as a collegial email, often cast in the 14-line blank-sonnet form that Robert Lowell favored— an appropriate model and precedent, as many of those poems were letters of address to family and friends. The poems in the Lockdown Letters section also bring to mind Frank O’Hara’s aesthetic of the poem as a personal telephone conversation with a friend—employing direct address in dealing with matters of shared interest and immediate importance. Whether or not these were among the models for Marion’s reinvention of the letter poem, he achieves the same poetic assuredness of those two poets. including the ideals of craft, the levels of inspiration, and the clarity, inventiveness, and directness of expression.
“Salt Creek Beach, Monarch Bay,” a descriptive, narrative poem, conveys the effect of watching a master Impressionist painter at work on a vast canvas, capturing the changes of light, and of time itself, in the scene until the “final fraction of sundown.”
Also admirable is the way Marion writes about sports—how sporting events can structure memories and deepen friendships. Not long after reading the prose poem “Sweeney’s Pond,” I enthusiastically shared its insights with two poet friends—the way that a sports activity can bridge time with old acquaintances, bring back memories, give perspective to the present, and frame future plans. Sports also create community, a topic Marion also explores in poems about his French Canadian heritage and his youth in Lowell.
Like William Carlos Williams, Marion finds poetry in his immediate surroundings—clearly he’s surrounded by gold, by treasures, and he shares these verbally, eloquently, and liberally.
Marion comes across throughout the poems as a man of letters, a literary statesman who wears his credentials easily and casually—he is ever amicable and approachable. Lockdown Letters & Other Poems immensely enjoyable—inventive, insightful, and inspiring.
— Javy Awan
Javy Awan has edited national professional association magazines, books, and journals. His poems have appeared in a variety of publications. He lives in Salem, Massachusetts, and is cofounder and publisher of Derby Wharf Light Box, a local poetry chapbook series.