Mark Jarman

Zeno's Eternity Mark Jarman

In Zeno's Eternity, Mark Jarman clues his readers in
on just what this eternity of Zeno might be and, then, what it might mean to
him. Here's the first stanza of his poem, "The Arrow Paradox."

Zeno sent
his arrow flying
endlessly from point
to point along its arc
to make a point
about eternity:
getting there is tricky.

Does the arrow ever arrive at its target? Though our lives
run on, we feel certain moments timeless--they never pass. Is this not only
Zeno's eternity, but ours, too?

These intensifications of life, felt as if taking place in
no more than a moment, are the source and subject of the poems in Zeno's
Eternity. Here are poems a spouse writes to a spouse, a grown person writes
to the parent envisioning them both younger, a visitor to a foreign place writes
a souvenir for his family. The poet intends that his words stop time by making
scenes indelible. As you read the poems in Zeno's Eternity, you'll fine
Mark Jarman has, like Zeno, apparently stopped time.