Atlantis

Luminous and unsparing, Mark Doty’s elegies confront love and mortality against the salt marshes and shifting light of Provincetown. The poignant, accomplished new collection of poetry from the author of My Alexandria--1993 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, 1993 National Book Award Finalist. In these poems, Doty balances the stark realities of illness against the stubborn vitality of coastal life, tracing his partner Wally’s days alongside their dogs, Arden and Beau. The volume anchors each elegy in concrete observation, from the rusted hull of the Sarah Lynn to the ancient spaniel Charley on his rope leash. Provincetown’s tidal flats and shifting waters frame these meditations with beached trawlers, stone breakwaters, and sudden October blooms. Contemporary Poetry: Doty crafts luminous meditations on art and transience, finding sublime reflection in a row of mackerel on ice and a green crab’s empty shell. AIDS Literature: Poems such as "Grosse Fuge" record the disorienting onset of illness in close friends, set against unseasonal October lilacs and late Beethoven quartets. LGBTQ Themes: From the fierce defiance of "Homo Will Not Inherit" to coastal evenings of drag along the harbor, these works celebrate queer desire, sanctuary, and community. American Poetry: Verses attentive to both Manhattan subway percussion and Cape Cod salt marshes capture the fleeting beauty of a fragile world. Also by This Author: Fire to Fire, Sweet Machine and Source.