The Advantages of Cable

Mark Young's The Advantages of Cable focuses on unexpected losses of focus, sudden changes in focal length, and spontaneous cracks in the lens, cracks that fracture, negate or enhance our immediate experience. Our "habitat" is over-defined, and not hospitable, but these sudden tricks of light (or of mind) produce visions of flying ostriches, angry crows, and blood-drinking salamanders: moments when "everybody freezes" and starts speaking "the language of the gypsies," all the "small things" that open us up to losing "all track" of the fatal limitations of our "habitat." Reading Mark's poems is like getting stuck in the revolving door of Marshall Fields, Myer, Selfridge's, or any large department store. We suddenly realize we're stuck, recognize our situation very differently than we did ten seconds ago, and can hear each of Mark's poems as the tink of a ball peen hammer on the glass, trying to free us. - Scott MacLeod