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| Martin Ott's "Captive" won the 2011 De Novo Poetry Prize by C&R Press and was published in 2012. Order it here. |
The word “captive” is multi-dimensional in Martin Ott’s
first full-length collection of poetry.
A former U.S. Army interrogator, Ott organizes his
musings on military life in tight, efficient lines and stanzas. “The
interrogator’s notebook is more frightening / when closed. That means the
questions / have ended,” (p. 14) he intimates matter-of-factly, but with a hint
of shame (he knows he’s frightened people in his life). In “Breathless,” he
tells us the hierarchical protocol for the gas mask drill: “When it is time to
take off the masks / the lowest ranking soldier tests the air” (p. 6). Such
lines appear to be straightforward glimpses into military life, until aha lines like “The lesson was: masks
work” (p. 6).
Because Ott, we are to presume, has had these often dark
and complicated experiences--which he tells of compassionately, with a strong
grasp of craft, and with no goal toward shock value—we trust his observations
about, say, magic tricks. We are glad the person speaking is seeing lighter,
happier scenes, like his daughter in a sandbox.
