A Display Of Mackerel Poem by Mark Doty

A Display Of Mackerel

Rating: 4.1


They lie in parallel rows,
on ice, head to tail,
each a foot of luminosity
barred with black bands,
which divide the scales'
radiant sections

like seams of lead
in a Tiffany window.
Iridescent, watery

prismatics: think abalone,
the wildly rainbowed
mirror of a soap-bubble sphere,

think sun on gasoline.
Splendor, and splendor,
and not a one in any way

distinguished from the other
- nothing about them
of individuality. Instead

they're all exact expressions
of the one soul,
each a perfect fulfillment

of heaven's template,
mackerel essence. As if,
after a lifetime arriving

at this enameling, the jeweler's
made uncountable examples
each as intricate

in its oily fabulation
as the one before;
a cosmos of champleve.

Suppose we could iridesce,
like these, and lose ourselves
entirely in the universe

of shimmer- would you want
to be yourself only,
unduplicatable, doomed

to be lost? They'd prefer,
plainly, to be flashing participants,
multitudinous. Even on ice

they seem to be bolting
forward, heedless of stasis.
They don't care they're dead

and nearly frozen,
just as, presumably,
they didn't care that they were living:

all, all for all,
the rainbowed school
and its acres of brilliant classrooms,

in which no verb is singular,
or every one is. How happy they seem,
even on ice, to be together, selfless,

which is the price of gleaming.

Monday, January 13, 2003
Topic(s) of this poem: life
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Charles Boyer 31 January 2012

I think Mark Doty's great. An heir to Marianne Moore in his precise use of language and eye for the visual detail. Never bombastic or tedious or pretentious. And no postmodern gibberish. He'll last.

2 7 Reply
Charles Boyer 31 January 2012

I think Mark Doty's great. An heir to Marianne Moore in his precise use of language and eye for the visual detail. Never bombastic or tedious or pretentious. And no postmodern gibberish. He'll last.

1 7 Reply

nothing like a row of clones and look alikes... no individuality no differences... i never realized how each different species of fish looked exactly the same as each other..a flounder looks like another flounder etc..great detail in the writing with a wonderful philosophical view..it begs me to say Holy Mackeral! !

0 0 Reply
Bri Edwards 27 March 2024

I got tire of reading this and did not finish. If this is a well-liked poem, I'd say something's 'fishy'. Read an excerpt about his life next: (cont.)

0 0 Reply
Bri Edwards 27 March 2024

(cont.) About Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work My Alexandria......' AND: 'Born: 1953 (age 70 years) , Maryville, TN Spouse: Alexander Hadel (m.2015) , Paul Lisicky (m.2008-2013' bri : ))

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 19 July 2024

Most deserving poem chosen by Poem Hunter and Team as The Modern Poem Of The Day. TOP Marks! Mark Doty was struck by the elegance of the mackerel in a fish display while shopping. His poem explores individuality, grief, and the mystery of the common good.

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Sylvia Frances Chan 27 March 2024

Summed up: "A Display of Mackerel" invites us to appreciate the extraordinary within the ordinary, question the value of individuality, and consider the immortality found in uniformity. TFS

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Sylvia Frances Chan 27 March 2024

While unique individuals are "unduplicatable" and ultimately "doomed, " the fish gain eternal existence as part of the indistinguishable mass. Sacrificing individuality allows the fish to be part of a timeless whole.

0 0 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 27 March 2024

TRULY THE LAST ONE (4) : challenging the preference for individuality over collective beauty. The Immortality in Uniformity: The narrator contrasts individuality with the eternal beauty of the fish.

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Sylvia Frances Chan 27 March 2024

THE LAST ONE (2) : Rather than each individual fish having a soul, the fish together become expressions of one divine soul. The identical fish possess a unique splendor,

0 0 Reply
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Mark Doty

Mark Doty

Maryville, Tennessee
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