Returning the Sword to the Stone

Mark Leidner — 2021

The followup to his beloved debut collection Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me, Mark Leidner’s Returning the Sword to the Stone is simultaneously profound and irreverent, in the same way that the world is flat as we walk and round as we live. “A child surprised that a neon sign / isn’t hot the first time they touch one / knows how it feels as an adult to achieve one’s goals” states the speaker of “Youth Is A Fugitive” and this sentiment is one of the central precepts of Returning the Sword to the Stone. Congealing directly off the page, these are poems that only Mark Leidner could have written.

Reviews

Anthony Sabourin@anthonysabourin

Mar 31, 2022

It's like getting the gang back together to pull off one last heist but your getaway driver lost their license and your safecracker has tinnitus and your right hand man is calling out your suspect reason for taking the job in the first place. there's a problem with the blueprints and that old detective who asks the good questions is standing under the streetlight by your apartment again. your failure is all but assured but this assurance feels bright and comforting everything that can go wrong will go wrong & so of course everything is going according to plan

Highlights

Nathan Johnson@nathan

It's a curse called the wereperson where, every full moon, after a gory and agonizing non-transtormation, you remain who you are.

Page 15

Nathan Johnson@nathan

Waiting is a time machine.

Wait a little to see the future.

Wait a lot to see the past again.

Page 73