Mark DeCarteret

Writer's Block

I see your winter’s up for sale once again,
that you’ve come down in price on its eternal chill
and cold rain, this ice like a diabolical lace–
will even settle for less than you first paid,
and accept straw or diapers, a couple of candles
or even lease it out and instead of a contract
have us scrawl our initials onto the kitchen’s frosted glass
or score the draped sealskin that hangs near your desk
till some ink can be rescued out the white–
thawed at that one path the fist still allows.




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Mark DeCarteret was awarded the Thomas Williams Memorial Poetry Prize, while at UNH studying alongside Charles Simic. Since then his poetry has appeared in over 300 different publications including AGNI, Atlanta Review, Bateau, Boston Review, The Cafe Review, Chicago Review, Conduit, and Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets (Oyster River Press) which he also co-edited. Mark’s fifth book, Flap was published last year by Finishing Line Press. Tom Lux insists that the “poems are laced with humor, irony, a splendid ear, a big wild heart.”