Unholy Sonnet 11

By Mark Jarman b. 1952 Mark Jarman

Half asleep in prayer I said the right thing

And felt a sudden pleasure come into

The room or my own body. In the dark,

Charged with a change of atmosphere, at first

I couldn’t tell my body from the room.

And I was wide awake, full of this feeling,

Alert as though I’d heard a doorknob twist,

A drawer pulled, and instead of terror knew

The intrusion of an overwhelming joy.

I had said thanks and this was the response.

But how I said it or what I said it for

I still cannot recall and I have tried

All sorts of ways all hours of the night.

Once was enough to be dissatisfied.

Source: Questions for Ecclesiastes (Story Line Press, 1997)

Biography

Considered a key figure in both New Narrative and New Formalism, Mark Jarman has exerted a significant influence on contemporary American poetry. In the 1980s, with Robert McDowell, Jarman founded and edited the Reaper, a magazine devoted to reclaiming and promoting poetry that emphasized story and image. Controversially warning "Navel gazers and mannerists” that “their time is running out,” the magazine sought to reestablish . . .

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