Night Drive and Other Poems

Night Drive and Other PoemsMary Clarks poetry explores, with apparent objectivity and occasional humor, the lives of others as well as the one within. With a deft control of language, she might take the reader through a childs early steps and those of an old man, to the cold beauty of nature, and the receding waves that follow a cars plummet off a cliff. She masters variations of subject and mood subtly and with great range; there is light verse, what might be called a

Mary ClarkÕs poetry explores, with apparent objectivity and occasional humor, the lives of others as well as the one within. With a deft control of language, she might take the reader through a childÕs early steps and those of an old man, to the cold beauty of nature, and the receding waves that follow a carÕs plummet off a cliff. She masters variations of subject and mood subtly and with great range; there is light verse, what might be called a philosophical lyricism, and isolated episodes of tragedy that never veer into melodrama or sentimentality. In poems like ÒSnowÓ, emotion is aroused incidentally, almost imperceptibly, by the imagery of skiers who find themselves in a blizzard, and end as ÒÉLarge flakes/ Of intricate design/ Floating down, down/ Down into the dark below.Ó