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The Valley of Your Life: Ekphrastic Poems

by Mari-Carmen Marin

Recipient of the Literary Titan Award for Poetry The Literary Titan Book Award recognizes poets who demonstrate exceptional artistry and proficiency and push the boundaries of language and expression. The recipients are poets who excel in their technical skills and evoke deep emotional responses, challenge thoughts, and illuminate new perspectives through their work. The award honors those who contribute to the literary landscape with their unique voices and powerful words.

From the moment we are born, we learn an inexorable truth: one day we are going to die, and as we grow older, we get to experience the contraries that often afflict our existence. We have a tendency to fight what we consider negative, and many of us become blind to the fact that without darkness, there is no light. To many of us it takes some time to realize that we have a choice between resisting and losing the battle to what is an unavoidable part of our existence and accepting the darkest moments in life and gaining perspective and wisdom that will lead to enlightenment. Inspired by works of visual art, The Valley of Your Life explores ways in which darkness co-exists with light and enriches the human experience. It embarks us on a journey from the desert to the valley of our lives through the vessel of the poetic word.

ART / General
POETRY / General

Released April 30, 2024; Copyright 2024

102 pages; 20 full-color images

Biography

Spanish by birth, Mari-Carmen Marin moved to Houston, Texas, in 2003, where she found her second home and teaches English at Lone Star College—Tomball. She turned to poetry at a time when her fears, anxiety, and depressive episodes enveloped her in a veil of dense fog. At first a flicker that helped her take small steps without falling, poetry has become a roaring flame that illuminates her path and warms her through the darkness. Her debut book of poetry, Swimming, Not Drowning, was published in 2021 by Legacy Book Press and was the 2022 American Writing Awards Winner for Poetry and Finalist in the Category of Autobiography and Memoir. She also received the Lone Star College Writing Excellence Award in the same year. Since an early age, Marin’s dream has been to make a difference in this world, to touch other people’s hearts in the way that so many artists have touched hers. She is currently living her dream and will continue living it as long as her duende keeps her company and she has an audience to listen.
www.maricarmenmarinauthor.com

Endorsements

“Mari-Carmen Marin's beautifully rendered ekphrastic poems owe their notable success to her extraordinary ability to give herself over fully to the intimacies of experience. In so doing, these poems deep dive into a generous gallery of paintings—from Salvador Dali to Doris Zinkeisen—and develop outward in the manner of self-portraits remade from the poet’s own image palette. This is a poet who understands that paintings inhabit simultaneously exterior and interior realms—the quotidian world and the world of dreams. Marin’s gift is her willingness to carry this double focus through so many moments of mature, deeply thoughtful, intimate renderings of disappointment, of loss, of consternation, each transcribed with an ear for language that’s so sensitive to the paintings that we feel the presence of the shadow persona in each one, so memorable, and fully alive.”
—Jeffrey Levine, founder, artistic director, and publisher of Tupelo Press

“Mari-Carmen Marin is a singular voice in contemporary poetry. In this collection of finely crafted ekphrastic pieces, the page becomes a canvas, a visual field unto itself. Marin’s poems are as stunning in their architecture as they are lyrical and thought-provoking. In a literary landscape filled with formally conservative ekphrastic verse, readers will be dazzled by Marin’s fresh take and incredible skill. This book is an achievement. Brava!”
—Kristina Marie Darling, Fulbright Scholar and author of Daylight Has Already Come

“These ekphrastic works dance through a marvelous array of artworks, bringing hidden treasures to life and showing us news ways to see old favorites. Marin approaches poetry with the same sense of wonder, exploring different ways to imagine the poem onto the page. This collection is a true adventure in poetic form, a journey through art history, and the poems are exquisitely beautiful.”
—Lorette C. Luzajic, founding editor of The Ekphrastic Review, author of The Rope Artist and Winter in June

Articles and Reviews

Hopelessness to Hope (Interview), Literary Titan (September 3, 2024)
“Visual art has a way to evoke strong feelings in me. Once the feelings take root in my body, I need to let them out in the form of poetry.”

Review, Literary Titan (August 26, 2024)
FIVE STARS! “Each poem is a reflection not just on the artwork it describes, but on the universal human experiences that art evokes.”

Romuald Dzemo, Review, The Book Commentary (August 13, 2024)
“This intricate canvas of imagery and emotion highlights the profound connections between poetry and visual art, inviting readers to see the world through a dual lens.”

Review, Kirkus (April 30, 2024)
“A breathtaking collection of poems inspired by timeless artwork.”

Jennie Louwes, Review, Reedsy
“Exquisite art forms, paintings, and poetry. Join the two together, and you unwrap a beauty beyond compare—masterpieces shone in a new light!”