What do you think?
Rate this book
Nightlight
Mark Ward’s long-awaited first collection Nightlight is a journey through a city and a reaching towards whatever light can be found; be that in a sex club, with a board game, a new friendship or a changing relationship. Throughout this journey, Ward feels his way back to touchstones of queer history as well as trying to make himself at home in his surroundings and his increasingly rebellious brain. These poems, deeply attuned to craft and form, mark the arrival of a fearless new voice in Irish poetry addressing sexuality, mental health, and the intricacies of relationships with a fresh eye and fierce command of language.
Advance Praise:
John McCullough: “Nightlight shows Mark Ward confronting the dark with panache. The defiance of the speakers at the start of this collection, however, is hard-won. The self here is under relentless attack, both from subtle prejudice and the winds that threaten all our most intimate connections. A librarian learns a new friend is desperate to die, a loving mother and son face a future as 'two ellipses, scattered into full stops.' Accessible and authentic, these poems glow with feeling.”
Seán Hewitt: “In Nightlight, Mark Ward gives us poems that are closely attuned to the body, to physical encounter, to the way history exists inside and beyond us. Ward’s poems sing from the testimony of memory, decipher its evidences, and trace its passage, both as it enters us and as it leaves. These lyrics are unashamed and visceral.”
Andrew McMillan: "In one poem, Mark Ward writes “body parts should become agents of commotion”, at another point he writes “Each touch is a spotlight”. In this powerful, energetic collection, the reader is asked to witness the performances, loving, erotic, fearful, which the body must endure."
Advance Praise:
John McCullough: “Nightlight shows Mark Ward confronting the dark with panache. The defiance of the speakers at the start of this collection, however, is hard-won. The self here is under relentless attack, both from subtle prejudice and the winds that threaten all our most intimate connections. A librarian learns a new friend is desperate to die, a loving mother and son face a future as 'two ellipses, scattered into full stops.' Accessible and authentic, these poems glow with feeling.”
Seán Hewitt: “In Nightlight, Mark Ward gives us poems that are closely attuned to the body, to physical encounter, to the way history exists inside and beyond us. Ward’s poems sing from the testimony of memory, decipher its evidences, and trace its passage, both as it enters us and as it leaves. These lyrics are unashamed and visceral.”
Andrew McMillan: "In one poem, Mark Ward writes “body parts should become agents of commotion”, at another point he writes “Each touch is a spotlight”. In this powerful, energetic collection, the reader is asked to witness the performances, loving, erotic, fearful, which the body must endure."
- GenresPoetry
68 pages, Paperback
Published February 23, 2023
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 23, 2023
Thirty-seven out of the forty-four poems in Nightlife have appeared in journals. The poems in many ways reflect their publishing history and how Ward's poetry faces a world audience. A poem about San Francisco in 1945 might come as something of a surprise.
The book carries introductions by McCullough, Hewitt, and McMillan, a powerful triumvirate. Both Hewitt and McMillan comment on Nightlife as if they are staring into a mirror, discuss poems "that are closely attuned to the body" or "witness the performance ... which the body must endure." McCullough looks beyond to the body's self under attack. Nightlife is not Carcass, however, and the strongest poems in this volume are more concerned with human rights and dignity. "Mother Tongue" is Ward at his best. Here, he narrates and captures emotion with sparce language. The horrors of gay persecution in Chechnya are related with empathy and irony as the poem moves from electric interrogation to how the victims are housed like "battery hens". A kiss is offered, but this is no time to sing the body electric. "Mobile Library" brings a meeting that brilliantly describes the mobility of human life as it passes towards death.
The word elliptical is a favoured word that occurs three times in Nightlife. In "Turkish Bath," men meet in a world of "elliptical rituals." Date" terminates with "elliptical cruising." And "Blackbird" sees the poet looks into the future with eyes that are "two ellipses, scattered into full stops." The poetic method in Nightlife is disposed towards an elliptical method: there are moments where images jump and a gap appears, apertures open in perception and experience. This is both effective and problematical in some poems. "Circadian" and "Dorsal" (based on a graphic strip cartoon by Matt Boyce and a photographic collage by Robert Dash respectively) are two ekphrastic poems that are not easy to grasp without the original artwork.
Nightlife is a volume filled with technical bravado. Ward handles taut couplets as well as Woods, employs etched stanzas as finely as Gunn, and "Mongrel" is a witty, tragic-comic sestina.Nightlife is a volume written by a poet who is well-versed in the history of gay poetry and has honed his craft meticulously.
The book carries introductions by McCullough, Hewitt, and McMillan, a powerful triumvirate. Both Hewitt and McMillan comment on Nightlife as if they are staring into a mirror, discuss poems "that are closely attuned to the body" or "witness the performance ... which the body must endure." McCullough looks beyond to the body's self under attack. Nightlife is not Carcass, however, and the strongest poems in this volume are more concerned with human rights and dignity. "Mother Tongue" is Ward at his best. Here, he narrates and captures emotion with sparce language. The horrors of gay persecution in Chechnya are related with empathy and irony as the poem moves from electric interrogation to how the victims are housed like "battery hens". A kiss is offered, but this is no time to sing the body electric. "Mobile Library" brings a meeting that brilliantly describes the mobility of human life as it passes towards death.
The word elliptical is a favoured word that occurs three times in Nightlife. In "Turkish Bath," men meet in a world of "elliptical rituals." Date" terminates with "elliptical cruising." And "Blackbird" sees the poet looks into the future with eyes that are "two ellipses, scattered into full stops." The poetic method in Nightlife is disposed towards an elliptical method: there are moments where images jump and a gap appears, apertures open in perception and experience. This is both effective and problematical in some poems. "Circadian" and "Dorsal" (based on a graphic strip cartoon by Matt Boyce and a photographic collage by Robert Dash respectively) are two ekphrastic poems that are not easy to grasp without the original artwork.
Nightlife is a volume filled with technical bravado. Ward handles taut couplets as well as Woods, employs etched stanzas as finely as Gunn, and "Mongrel" is a witty, tragic-comic sestina.Nightlife is a volume written by a poet who is well-versed in the history of gay poetry and has honed his craft meticulously.
March 30, 2023
It's me! Yes I rated my own book five stars!
Out 23rd Feb 2023 from Salmon Poetry
Out 23rd Feb 2023 from Salmon Poetry
March 8, 2025
After the chapbook "Carcass", I was looking forward to Mark Ward's debut collection, and "Nightlight" delivers. These are poems with heart and brains, where there's always something at stake. As others have said, these verses are visceral and authentic.
Structurally, different poems play with different forms, but there's always an accessibility behind any experimentation, and pieces like "bare" and "trick" are refreshing in their immediate musicality, like hearing a four-on-the-floor dance tune after the more jazzy style of most poets operating at this level.
Check this out - one of the most consistently engaging collections you'll come across.
Structurally, different poems play with different forms, but there's always an accessibility behind any experimentation, and pieces like "bare" and "trick" are refreshing in their immediate musicality, like hearing a four-on-the-floor dance tune after the more jazzy style of most poets operating at this level.
Check this out - one of the most consistently engaging collections you'll come across.
November 1, 2024
Excellent
April 4, 2023
A stunning collection. Poignant, beautiful, an absolute must read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews