Life on Mars, by Gary Duehr

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Life on Mars is written in renga, a style of Japanese verse like an extended haiku. The end of one poem links to the start of the next, as when they were created extemporaneously at gatherings of literati. During the first year of the Covid pandemic, I wrote one poem a day and posted them on Facebook and Instagram, as a way to provide a historical diary of the times and to connect to a larger community in the midst of isolation. It felt like we were all living on Mars. The poems are influenced by classic haiku images as well, such as falling snow, the trill of birds, and intimate daily life. The scope of the verse ranges from mundane observations to the larger political sphere, even touching on the 1918 flu epidemic. Based in Boston, Gary Duehr has taught writing for local universities including BU, Lesley University and Tufts. His MFA is from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In 2001 he received an NEA Poetry Fellowship, and he has also received grants and fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. His books of poetry include Point Blank (In Case of Emergency Press), Winter Light (Four Way Books) and Where Everyone Is Going To (St. Andrews College Press). His children’s book in verse is Felicia the Ferret and the Atom Smasher from Thurston Howl Publications.