Poet and Critic
Poetry
Bio
Mark Jarman began reading and writing poems in his teens. His early poetry reflects the influence of living by the Pacific and the North Sea at important times in his life, along with growing up in a strongly religious family. As he has matured, his poetry has remained invested in family experience, a sense of place, and the presence of God in everyday life.
In the Press
In Mark Jarman's considerable new collection...[the poems] very often trace similar paths of thought and experience toward freedom, light, truth, and love.
Ray Olson, BOOKLIST, review of The Heronry
Finally, I admire the way Mark Jarman’s poetry worries spiritual concerns while remaining rooted in the everyday. His Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems collects poems from eight volumes, starting with 1978’s North Sea, and includes 19 new pieces that are as always brave and honest. . . . A great overview collection.
Barbara Hoffert, LIBRARY JOURNAl, review of Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems
Jarman’s sensibility as a poet and critic characterizes itself with plainspoken sophistication rooted widely and securely in the best intellectual traditions of his art . . .
Daniel Tobin, LITERARY MATTERS, review of Dailiness: Essays on Poetry
On page after page, Jarman takes quotidian diurnal light and transforms it into solar energy.
Peggy Ellsberg, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS, review of Dailiness: Essays on Poetry