Mark Jenkins

Mark’s Bookshelves

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translation‎ (299)
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place‎ (236)
sci-fi‎ (155)

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long-poem-poetry-sequence-exam‎ (102)
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ekphrasitic-poetry‎ (66)
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work‎ (27)
did-not-finish-2‎ (24)
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audiobook‎ (15)
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ya‎ (5)
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found-poetry-source‎ (3)
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Mark is Currently Reading

Mark Jenkins is currently reading

The Lonesome Dove Series

by Larry McMurtry

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 30, 2026 08:38PM

Mark Jenkins is currently reading

James

by Percival Everett

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 17, 2026 03:57PM

Mark Jenkins is currently reading

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley, #3)

by John le Carré

bookshelves: currently-reading, audiobook

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Apr 21, 2026 08:59AM

See all 11 books that Mark is reading…

Mark’s Quotes

“I trust it will be believed that an explorer may be an imaginative as well as a practical creature. ”
― Ernest Giles, Australia Twice Traversed

1 likes

“You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

tags: philosophy, wisdom

5935 likes

“King Arthur: I am your king.
Peasant Woman: Well, I didn't vote for you.
King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.
Peasant Woman: Well, how'd you become king, then?
[Angelic music plays... ]
King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king.
Dennis the Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Arthur: Be quiet!
Dennis the Peasant: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!”
― Monty Python and the Holy Grail

tags: humor

46 likes

“Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity.”
― Frank Zappa

173 likes

“... we
do not admire what
we cannot understand.”
― Marianne Moore, Complete Poems

1105 likes

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Mark’s Groups

¡ POETRY ! — 22518 members — last activity Jun 20, 2026 06:44PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

Poetry Readers Challenge — 642 members — last activity Jan 08, 2026 06:18AM
Let's talk about poetry books. This group's members read poetry collections, with the goal of reviewing twenty in a year. C'mon. Do it. It's good for ...more

Contemporary American Poetry — 71 members — last activity Jul 22, 2023 07:20PM
A group for those who are reading and writing contemporary American poetry. Feel free to talk about what you're reading, why we should or shouldn't re ...more

Goodreads Librarians Group — 328828 members — last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more

Amazon Vine Members — 1229 members — last activity Jun 23, 2026 09:02AM
This is a private group run exclusively by Amazon Vine Voice members for Vine members. We are one of two Vine forums here on GoodReads, started in ear ...more

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