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Underdays
We encounter many voices in from friends and family, from media, from co-workers, from other artists. In a highly connected global world, where people and entities are electronically enmeshed, we filter these voices constantly to get to what we determine to be the truth. Taking inspiration from pop culture, politics, art, and social media, Martin Ott mines daily existence as the inspiration and driving force behind Underdays . Underdays is a dialogue of opposing life/death, love/war, the personal/the political. Ott combines global concerns with personal ones, in conversation between poems or within them, to find meaning in his search for what drives us to love and hate each other. Within many of the poems, a second voice, expressed in italic, hints at an opposing force “under” the surface, or multiple voices in conversation with his older and younger selves―his Underdays―to chart a path forward. What results is a poetic heteroglossia expressing the richness of a complex world.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2015
195 people want to read
About the author
Martin Ott
14 books129 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Born in Alaska and raised in Michigan, Martin Ott served as an interrogator in U.S. Army military intelligence.
He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC, and often writes about his adopted city, including in the novel The Interrogator's Notebook (currently being pitched by Paradigm as a TV pilot) and poetry books Captive, De Novo Prize Winner, C&R Press and Underdays, Sandeen Prize Winner, University of Notre Dame Press (Fall 2015).
Social and political themes are prevalent in all of his books, particularly Poets' Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network, coauthored with John F. Buckley, Brooklyn Arts Press and his short story collection, Interrogations, Fomite Press (Spring 2016). His novel Spectrum, C&R Press, (Fall 2016), asks what if a wall is built in a post-apocalyptic America, fueled by bigotry and the unintended consequences of technology.
His most recent poetry book, LESSONS IN CAMOUFLAGE, C&R Press, 2018, explores the hidden reservoirs of his life as an interrogator, divorced father, and estranged son to a dying mother, all with an eye on truths easy to conceal and sometimes painful to reveal.
His Writeliving blog - http://writeliving.wordpress.com/ - has been read by more than 30,000 people in 100+ countries. More at www.martinottwriter.com.
Born in Alaska and raised in Michigan, Martin Ott served as an interrogator in U.S. Army military intelligence.
He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC, and often writes about his adopted city, including in the novel The Interrogator's Notebook (currently being pitched by Paradigm as a TV pilot) and poetry books Captive, De Novo Prize Winner, C&R Press and Underdays, Sandeen Prize Winner, University of Notre Dame Press (Fall 2015).
Social and political themes are prevalent in all of his books, particularly Poets' Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network, coauthored with John F. Buckley, Brooklyn Arts Press and his short story collection, Interrogations, Fomite Press (Spring 2016). His novel Spectrum, C&R Press, (Fall 2016), asks what if a wall is built in a post-apocalyptic America, fueled by bigotry and the unintended consequences of technology.
His most recent poetry book, LESSONS IN CAMOUFLAGE, C&R Press, 2018, explores the hidden reservoirs of his life as an interrogator, divorced father, and estranged son to a dying mother, all with an eye on truths easy to conceal and sometimes painful to reveal.
His Writeliving blog - http://writeliving.wordpress.com/ - has been read by more than 30,000 people in 100+ countries. More at www.martinottwriter.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 19, 2015
Underdays is a terrifyingly beautiful collection of poems. Some of the poems will reach inside the deepest part of you and rip you apart while others will put you back together and mend you. There seem to be so many layers to Martin Ott's poetry, that I know for sure this is a book that I will revisit often. It is just one of those books that beg to be reread in order to peel back all those layers. The author is extremely talented with words and I was completely mesmerized by the beauty of the language, even when the themes could be so dark and haunting. Every single poem seems to have a higher purpose and as the reader, I felt that it was my job, my duty to decipher and reconcile its meaning. A poem about not carrying an umbrella is not really a poem about umbrellas, so what is it about? The dialogue in italics within the poems is brilliant and it guides you into the depths of the poem so that you can find your own answers.
From High Above The Airport:
"You're a decorated pilot
descending from a dogfight.
No, a child with paper wings
plunging spellbound toward earth."
I highly recommend this book of poems. If you have any interest in poetry, you will not be disappointed by Martin Ott's collection. Underdays is poignant, yet absolutely stunning. I leave you with my favorite quote from the book: "We will conquer mountains of air on words that form translucent ladders to the constellations of our adventures."
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
From High Above The Airport:
"You're a decorated pilot
descending from a dogfight.
No, a child with paper wings
plunging spellbound toward earth."
I highly recommend this book of poems. If you have any interest in poetry, you will not be disappointed by Martin Ott's collection. Underdays is poignant, yet absolutely stunning. I leave you with my favorite quote from the book: "We will conquer mountains of air on words that form translucent ladders to the constellations of our adventures."
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
January 4, 2016
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an open and honest review.
This book is at once both foreign and familiar to me. Some elements, like Nirvana, are comfortable and recognizable to me, and I greet them with understanding. Some facets, however, are alien and outside my realm. In particular, "Survivor's Manual To Love and War" is the most poignant of the poems for me. It is simultaneously past and present, full of metaphors you can sink your teeth into and really mull over, regardless if you have been in a survival situation or not.
This book is at once both foreign and familiar to me. Some elements, like Nirvana, are comfortable and recognizable to me, and I greet them with understanding. Some facets, however, are alien and outside my realm. In particular, "Survivor's Manual To Love and War" is the most poignant of the poems for me. It is simultaneously past and present, full of metaphors you can sink your teeth into and really mull over, regardless if you have been in a survival situation or not.
August 20, 2015
Martin Ott's Underdays is the 2015 winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, edited by Orlando Ricardo Menes and Joyelle McSweeney, sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame. The prizes are awarded to authors who have published at least one volume of poetry.
Underdays is Ott's second collection of poetry. In this volume, Ott, a former US Army interrogator, poses questions about how we define a world through the lens of opposing forces of human nature: love and war. This is a journey that combines the author's new poetry, old work reimagined, and multiple voices (internal and external) in a conversation with his older and younger selves—his Underdays—to chart a path forward.
Ott is an extraordinary poet, and he has two readings scheduled in the coming months:
September 27, 2015, 5:00pm, Skylights Books, Los Angeles, CA
February 17, 2016, 7:30pm, Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, Notre Dame, IN
If you are in either area, I hope you can make plans to attend.
Underdays is Ott's second collection of poetry. In this volume, Ott, a former US Army interrogator, poses questions about how we define a world through the lens of opposing forces of human nature: love and war. This is a journey that combines the author's new poetry, old work reimagined, and multiple voices (internal and external) in a conversation with his older and younger selves—his Underdays—to chart a path forward.
Ott is an extraordinary poet, and he has two readings scheduled in the coming months:
September 27, 2015, 5:00pm, Skylights Books, Los Angeles, CA
February 17, 2016, 7:30pm, Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, Notre Dame, IN
If you are in either area, I hope you can make plans to attend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews