My Studio: Poems

by Clarence Major

Beginning and ending in Clarence Major’s atelier, My Studio demonstrates how art can influence our perception of the world, prompting “all the parts [to] coalesce into a cohesive whole.” With precise and engaging imagery, Major contemplates the spaces we occupy and the “beauty in everyday things” from the familiarity of his studio. “This is more than a room,” he observes. “It’s an unimpeded mental vista.”

Major harnesses both humor and seriousness to investigate a wide range of human experiences. In “A Tragedy Indisputable,” he considers the funeral of a young boy, and the bewilderment and confusion of the crowd, whose “allegiance to logic and reason [is] now in perpetual sway.” In another poem, he paints the picture of a serene day interrupted by “the hammer’s sympathy for the nail, the chatter of ghosts in the bedroom.” In rethinking the relationship between poetry and the world of visual art, Major crafts an intricate and insightful collection, full of passion and inventive language, in which everyday life becomes an opportunity for inward reflection.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published October 9, 2018

About the author

Currently a professor of twentieth century American literature at the University of California at Davis, Clarence Major is a poet, painter and novelist who was born in Atlanta and grew up in Chicago.
Clarence Major was a finalist for the National Book Awards (1999). He is recipient of many awards, among them, a National Council on The Arts Award (1970), a Fulbright (1981-1983), a Western States Book Award (1986) and two Pushcart prizes--one for poetry, one for fiction. Major is a contributor to many periodicals and anthologies in the USA, Europe, South America and Africa. He has served as judge for The National Book Awards, the PEN-Faulkner Award and twice for the National Endowment for The Arts. Major has traveled extensively and lived in various parts of the United States and for extended periods in France and Italy. He has lectured and read his work in dozens of U. S. universities as well as in England, France, Liberia, West Germany, Ghana, and Italy.