After doing a little research, I found that the author is 26 years old, and has achieved one of my dreams~publication by the esteemed New Yorker Magazine. That’s where I found this poem.

Background… From Toledo newspaper, The Blade By Ryan E. Smith BLADE STAFF WRITER

Marcus Jackson couldn’t wait to get his hands on last month’s controversial issue of the New Yorker, the one whose cover caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama set the political world abuzz.

It wasn’t the cover that interested the Toledo native, though; it was a piece of poetry – his poetry.

Tucked within the distinguished magazine’s pages in its July 21 edition was a narrow sliver of verse by Mr. Jackson titled, “Mary at the Tattoo Shop.” In less than 140 words, it tells the tale of a 14-year-old who gets her name permanently imprinted on the back of her neck while accompanied by a friend.

As a young writer who had seen fewer than a dozen of his poems published, it was the crowning achievement of his professional career so far. Mr. Jackson, 26, said he learned that his poem – one of a batch of 40 or 50 that he had sent out to various publications – had been accepted late last year while he was at work.

“I was just thrilled for about a week straight,” he said. “I went into the conference room and I did a little silent dance.”

Competition among poets for space in the New Yorker is fierce. The magazine receives about 600 poetry submissions a week, with each submission usually consisting of several poems from a single contributor, said Paul Muldoon, the New Yorker’s poetry editor.

In the case of Mr. Jackson’s poem, it stood out by providing a new way of looking at the phenomenon of tattoo parlors, he said.

“One of the things that we’re interested in, I guess, is the poem that is going to modify one’s sense of the world,” Mr. Muldoon said.

A graduate of Start High School and the University of Toledo, Mr. Jackson received a master’s degree in poetry from New York University in 2006. These days, he lives in Manhattan and works as an office manager for a magazine publisher.

Writing wasn’t always a passion of his, and it didn’t always get the results he wanted. His first poem was an attempt to win back an ex-girlfriend with some rhyming couplets. It didn’t work.

There was a time when he assumed he would just skip college and get a job with Jeep in Toledo, but his father, Raymond, worked at UT and encouraged him to study there. That’s where Mr. Jackson started writing seriously and fell in love with poems in particular.

“When you come across a poem that you like or that you love … from a reader’s standpoint, there isn’t one thing you would want to change,” he said.

Rane Arroyo, professor of English and creative writing at UT and one of Mr. Jackson’s mentors, said that he is proud of
Mr. Jackson and he touted the young man’s work for being precise and real.

“He has a Midwest tone to his work and a sense of honesty,” he said. “He’s not imitating other people.”

“Mary at the Tattoo Shop” is based on a real-life experience with an old friend at a tattoo parlor in West Toledo that is no longer around, according to Mr. Jackson.

“I just wanted to get the scene down because it was a straight-from-memory poem,” he said.

So he focused on details, like the sound of the tattoo gun “that buzzed loud as if trying to get free.” The poem describes the aftermath, too, including how “my finger glistened in salve as I reached for her swollen name.”

As he revised and trimmed it, Mr. Jackson hoped the emotion would come to the surface on its own.

“You don’t want to proclaim,” he said. “You just want to lay things out in a kind of neat, under-control manner and then whatever kind of emotion will surface will surface.”

On the day described in the poem, Mary was the only one who came away with any ink. Thanks to the New Yorker, Mr. Jackson now has a lot less painful way to show off some of his own.

Mary at the Tattoo Shop

by Marcus Jackson

She counted her money

before we went in,

avenue beside us anxious

with Friday-evening traffic.

Both fourteen, we shared a Newport,

its manila butt salty to our lips.

Inside, from a huge book

of designs and letter styles,

she chose to get “MARY”

in a black, Old English script

on the back of her neck.

The guy who ran the shop

leaned over her for forty minutes

with a needled gun

that buzzed loud

as if trying to get free.

He took her twenty-five dollars

then another ten

for being under age.

Back outside, the sun

dipped behind rooftops,

about to hand the sky over to night.

Lifting her hazel hair,

she asked me to rub

some A&D ointment

on her new tattoo;

my finger glistened in salve

as I reached for her swollen name.

Tags: poetry, poetry wednesday

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25 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

greenwytch wrote on Aug 12, ’08

i really love this! gosh, maybe i need a new tattoo.

edit delete reply

lauritasita wrote on Aug 12, ’08

Interesting poem, but I like your original work better.

kwika wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I’e never been to a tattoist but with this poem I was there. The last few lines are also quite erotic, or is it only in my mind:)

strongwilledwoman wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I agree with Laurita, your work is much better. I hope you send your work to them, and if they pass it up they are the ones who are missing out, as well as all their readers. When I read your work as so many others here, I feel blessed that I happened upon multiply.

vghozlan wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I liked this…the simplicity is captivating…

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 12, ’08

lauritasita said

Interesting poem, but I like your original work better.

A sister after my own heart! Maybe I have a chance at The New Yorker after all!!!! Mwahs!

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 12, ’08

kwika said

I’e never been to a tattoist but with this poem I was there. The last few lines are also quite erotic, or is it only in my mind:)

You know, I agree; I think I put it aside consciously, but it registered subconsciously.

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 12, ’08

strongwilledwoman said

Thank you! You made my day–Laurita, too.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to get work published by this mag–it is THE mag. Well my book will be out this year, perhaps I’ll give it a shot and send the whole damn thing over. Throw the book at them!

vickiecollins wrote on Aug 12, ’08

Very good…26 you say…wow.
http://vickiecollins.multiply.com/journal/item/439/Poetry_Wednesday_Works_Hard_for_Her_Money

sweetpotatoqueen wrote on Aug 12, ’08

Very realistic! My dear…if this poet can get published in The New Yorker then you can too as your works really are good. Nothing ventured,nothing gained.

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 12, ’08

sweetpotatoqueen said

Very realistic! My dear…if this poet can get published in The New Yorker then you can too as your works really are good. Nothing ventured,nothing gained.

I’m feelin’ the love and thinkin’ “why not??” xoxo

jadedruid wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I can see two best friends doing this together. One as moral support to the other. At the same time I kept thinking if this was my daughter I’d kill her!

skeezicks1957 wrote on Aug 12, ’08

The poem is well written and I am happy for the young person to have been published in this way. But I agree there is something special about Sans original work that is head and shoulders above this poem. But this poem is a fine poem too.

poeticjay wrote on Aug 12, ’08

Nice post. So tell me Sue..when and where do I buy yours my dear.

edit delete reply

lauritasita wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I’m going to go to your book-signing and ask for your autograph.

starfishred wrote on Aug 12, ’08

I totaly agree with Laurita hey if they published this they should be publishing yours to yours is infinitly better!

billatplay wrote on Aug 13, ’08

So it wasn’t based on the original Mary then. Well that’s something. lol See what you get for not being ‘Contrary’

gilesy01 wrote on Aug 13, ’08

It’s captured a cultural moment of the era hasn’t it?

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 13, ’08

poeticjay said

Nice post. So tell me Sue..when and where do I buy yours my dear.

I promise Jay, I’ll get back to work soon!!!

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 13, ’08

skeezicks1957 said

Thank you and thank you! Did I say THANK YOU?? xo

artimisia wrote on Aug 14, ’08

the last line is very good

bostonsdandd wrote on Aug 15, ’08

When I say I agree with everyone about yours being better it seems redundant LOL. But it IS the truth. Though I like this poem, and I could see the two friends, it wasn’t as good as the ladybug poem where I FELT them crawling all over me as they once crawled over you ;o).
Nice post.

sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 15, ’08

bostonsdandd said

Oh the yellow butterflies! When I read this poem I saw something of the way I write in it,and for a moment it seemed “familiar.” My husband has been nagging me to send my work out and even toe The New Yorker which has a reputation of taking NO ONE’S work who is an UNKNOWN. They get so many things sent to them. But you know what, I really have to sit down and concentrate, get the book done and use it as a portfolio AND send it to the magazine. As Sweetie said, what do I have to lose?
I so appreciate your comment, sister, and it means a lot to me, everyone is giving me courage!
Thank you!

philsgal7759 wrote on Aug 16, ’08

I agree with your sister it’s ok but frankly you are a better writer. EWhy not submit YOUR work to them?

sanddunz wrote on Aug 18, ’08

Really nice makes you feel as if you were there.

Cerebral Jukebox Magazine

Susan Kalish on Wordpress.org

289. Poetry: Mary at the Tattoo Shop

Mary at the Tattoo Shop

by Marcus Jackson

Thank you! You made my day–Laurita, too.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to get work published by this mag–it is THE mag. Well my book will be out this year, perhaps I’ll give it a shot and send the whole damn thing over. Throw the book at them!

I promise Jay, I’ll get back to work soon!!!

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