Marick Press Releases First Two Books: “The Sleeping” and “A Complex Bravery”

“The Sleeping”
Author: Caroline Maun
Year: 2006
Pages: 53
Price: $14.95

“A Complex Bravery”
Author: Robert Lipton
Year: 2006
Pages: 70
Price: $14.95

Marick Press

For more information regarding Marick Press, please see Heather’s previous interview with its founder, Mariela Griffor here.

Marick Press, a literary non-profit publisher, released its first two books: “The Sleeping” and “A Complex Bravery” on April 30, 2006.

“The Sleeping,” a collection of 48 poems by Caroline Maun, a Grosse Pointe Park resident and Wayne State University professor of critical literacies, explores such diverse themes as “the self,” the memory of a rape, the purpose of poetry, the surprises of nature, marriage and divorce, online dating, racism, and the death of her parents. As a thread running throughout, she questions the reader: is home a physical place, or rather a place in the heart? The poems alternate between settings such as the gravesite of her grandparents, a doctor’s office, her childhood home in Florida, and Lovegrove Street in Baltimore—the place where she and her lover were “two ghostly shapes at the table/wrapped in shimmering warmth and light/sipping love from cups.” According to Maun, the book “came out of lived experiences. I needed to put a frame around them.”

“The Sleeping” is Maun’s first book of poetry, and it’s recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. According to Mary Jane Lupton, author of “Menstruation and Psychoanalysis,” the most astonishing aspect of the work “is Maun’s ability to recall private places, and through them, create universal images of childhood, sexuality, and death.”

The language of this volume is direct and simple; “The Sleeping” will be enjoyable for those who aren’t typically comfortable with poetry. In it, moments of calm wisdom: “If you move too much/you may always be homesick;” “this skin isn’t a shell/but an integral part of the living thing/that I am.” The voice of “The Sleeping” is decidedly feminine, and pulses with a warm, enthusiastic energy. In a world of often outlandishly abstract verse comes Caroline Maun: a poet who’s open, honest, and concrete; a poet you’ll enjoy on a leisurely summer afternoon; a poet who’ll give you an intimate thrill—reading her verse often feels like eavesdropping, or flipping through a secret diary.

The other newly-released book by Marick Press, “A Complex Bravery,” owns a more polished, public approach. This collection of 55 poems by Berkeley, Calif., poet Robert Lipton, explores three main themes: childhood, love, and war. There are three main settings, as well: Vietnam, Nablus and his home in California—where “the recycled newspaper box has scare headlines/going on about war/like it has just been invented.”

Although “A Complex Bravery” is Lipton’s first book of poetry, it shows no signs of timidity. The book begins with a coolly scientific, detached voice, discussing his childhood. From there, momentum and power build to topics of his aging mother, a love affair, and a first-hand portrayal of war in the Middle East. The subject matter, as well as the language and imagery are dense: I recommend reading “A Complex Bravery” in more than one sitting.

Lipton’s voice is less gendered than Maun’s; also, it displays a kind of fascinating contradiction: the poems convey the essential aloneness of the poet, while simultaneously explaining that we, as humans, cannot escape our connectedness.

Lipton takes cover behind no artifice, no mask, no overblown persona. His blunt honesty, at times, reminds me of Charles Bukowski; his smoothness and grace, in other moments, reminiscent of Pablo Neruda.

“A Complex Bravery” is an intellectually, as well as emotionally rewarding read. The poems maintain interest by Lipton’s willingness to experiment, to mix tones and form. His observations are all at once wise, sassy, hilarious, ironic, angry, romantic, chilling, and brave; they’re grieving, and beautifully “colored like the end of autumn.” No doubt there will be much more from Lipton in the future: his pen seems ever-alert, unflinching from its duty to “search for the next thing/and then another.”

To read samples from these books check out thedetroiter.com lit section, or follow the links below. Here’s a sampling from these two new books…

Caroline Maun from “The Sleeping”

Robert Lipton from “A Complex Bravery”

Heather A. McMacken is the detroiter.com's very first intern. She attends Oakland University and is an English major. She adores poetry. She eats it for breakfast.