MUZZLE MAGAZINE
  • Home
  • Spring 2025
  • Submissions
  • Archives
  • Blog

22/30: Ben Clark, 30 Poets in Their 30s.

11/18/2013

 
Picture
When I was a girl, I lived in an area that attracted plenty of lightning bugs mid-summer. My siblings and I watched them, chased them, and sometimes, briefly, coaxed them to land on our skin. We never trapped them in mason jars or glasses, but I like the imagery of that. Fireflies pulsing with green bioluminescence, creating gorgeous anarchic lanterns by their pulse.

Reading Ben Clark's work, what comes to mind are lovely, living lights that inspire awe and sorrow. Clark understands the dichotomy between distance and closeness very well – and the difference between beauty and brutality. He knows how to let tension in a poem ease just enough before it rains.

I like the lights Clark cages. I like how he whispers as he asks his reader to watch the glow. I warm my hands by that.

*

Ben Clark grew up in rural Nebraska and now lives in Chicago, Illinois. He has worked as an English teacher, librarian, tile maker, track coach, and in a microwaveable popcorn factory. He is an assistant editor for Muzzle Magazine, and recently returned from the very successful Little Bones tour with a new tattoo. His first full-length collection of poetry, Reasons To Leave The Slaughter, was released by Write Bloody Publishing in 2011. You can find more of his work here: benclarkpoetry.com



Comments are closed.

    Archives

    June 2024
    May 2024
    December 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    December 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    April 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    June 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Npm2013

    RSS Feed

ISSN 2157-8079
  • Home
  • Spring 2025
  • Submissions
  • Archives
  • Blog