Small Buried Things

by Debra Marquart

Small Buried Things is Debra Marquart's third poetry collection. It comments on the small (and not-so-small) events and objects of everyday life that we tend to "bury" in our histories as an individual and as a nation.

Genres: Poetry

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Debra Marquart is a professor of English at Iowa State University. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Marquart's work has appeared in numerous journals such as The North American Review, Three Penny Review, New Letters, River City, Crab Orchard Review, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Sun Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, Orion, Mid-American Review and Witness.

In the seventies and eighties, Marquart was a touring road musician with rock and heavy metal bands. Her collection of short stories, The Hunger Bone: Rock & Roll Stories draws from her experiences as a female road musician. Marquart continues to perform with a jazz-poetry rhythm & blues project, The Bone People, with whom she has released two CDs: Orange Parade (acoustic rock), and A Regular Dervish (jazz-poetry).

Marquart's work has received numerous awards and commendations, including the John Guyon Nonfiction Award (Crab Orchard Review), the Mid-American Review Nonfiction Award, The Headwater's Prize from New Rivers Press, the Minnesota Voices Award, the Pearl Poetry Award (Pearl Editions), the Shelby Foote Prize for the Essay from the Faulkner Society, a Pushcart Prize, and a 2008 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.

A performance poet, Marquart is the author of two poetry collections: Everything's a Verb and From Sweetness. Her memoir, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, was published by Counterpoint Books in 2006. It received the "Elle Lettres" award from Elle Magazine and the 2007 PEN USA Creative Nonfiction Award. Marquart is currently at work on a novel, set in Greece, titled The Olive Harvest, and a roots memoir about emigration, geographical flight, and cultural amnesia titled Somewhere Else this Time Tomorrow.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first, this is good poetry. I recommend reading it. However, while reading Small Buried Things, I had a tough time trying to discern the underlying theme of the collection. It confused me right off the bat, because I had trouble seeing the big picture. The book is divided into three parts. The first and third are rather similar in their content, containing sixteen poems each. At first I believed the collection focused on memories, missed moments and regrets. Past romantic relationships and mothers are mentioned quite often. But then there are a couple outliers to this theory; their tone is very different and much more bright than the others. The second section is made up of only one poem – the title poem, Small Buried Things, which is itself divided into five parts. The theme of the second section is easy to discern, because it is literally about buried things (although they are not small): the nuclear warheads and the oil deposits found deep in the earth in North Dakota. However, when looking at this section in context with the others, I just couldn’t line them up. Of course, I’m the first to admit that I don’t read much poetry, so perhaps I just don’t have enough experience or insight to find the theme of this work.

One of the things that I really appreciated about Small Buried Things (besides the good poetry) is the design of the book. It is very simple, which I felt fit Debra Marquart’s writing very well. This is not to say that her writing is simple – it is actually quite engaging – but it is not overly complicated or obtuse. The cover design is a good representation of the subtle layers Marquart presents in her poems. I also liked the symmetrical arrangement of the poems, with the first and third sections reflecting each other in a way. It gave the book a feeling of being complete and well-rounded, bringing things full circle. Like I said at the beginning of this review, I would recommend this collection to others, even to those who do not like poetry very much (like me).

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a grad student at Iowa State, people would always remark, upon hearing that I was from North Dakota, that I needed to meet Deb Marquart. Because I rarely take advice when I should, I never did meet her, but I'm very glad that I've since gotten to know her through her writing. I loved her memoir about her growing up years, The Horizontal World, and then a few years ago I started coming across her poems in journals. This book is a fine collection of her poems on a variety of themes. There are autobiographical poems about her childhood and her life today, and some nice poems having to do with language itself. The collection takes its title from her long poem dealing with the oil industry in North Dakota. My only problem with this book is that it was too short. I guess I need to seek out her earlier collections.

[Rachel Coyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

You feel the real human heart in this book. The pages beat with humor in poems like Kablooey Is The Sound You Hear and touch on lament in Grey Hound Days. In Door to Door there is real menace.