MARK TERRILL – Great Balls of Doubt
“A solid collection from a vigilant compañero of the real work . . . an ally of the Zen wing of the New American Poetry of observation & witness.”—ANNE WALDMAN
By turns sardonic, elegiac, comic, and surreal, Mark Terrill’s new collection of 96 poems, Great Balls of Doubt, explores everyday states of mind with precision and empathy. Whether pondering life’s ups and downs in a waterfront bar, gazing into January fog; recalling the role reversal entailed in attending to his father in dementia; or driving through the cabbage fields of Northern Germany into an epiphany of body and mind, Terrill finds salvation in sheer consciousness and generously passes his hard-won gains along to the reader. Twenty-five black-and white illustrations by Jon Langford amplify the book’s essential themes.
Praised by such luminaries of the New American Poetry as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Lally, Joanne Kyger, and Edward Field. Terrill’s work builds on the foundations of that tradition, gives it a rock’n’roll twist, and drives it forward into a new decade.
“Mark Terrill, the true poet . . . of the world he sees as essentially forlorn, if not absurd, if not entirely hopeless. But his poetry is far from hopeless. It is a hard light to alleviate the situation of the world as he sees it.”
—LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
