Professor of English Enjoys Publishing Success

One of the professor’s recent poems was inspired by a panel discussion at the annual Anime Central convention. Another poem was sparked by a day in the park with his young daughters. In another, he melds his interest in jazz and haiku.

Dr. Mark Jones, professor of English, has enjoyed a series of recent publishing successes with his creative writing, especially his haiku.

“Haiku are celebratory,” said Jones, “putting together two images with an epiphany in the middle and capturing a basic experience in terse, minimalist form.”

Over Trinity’s winter break, Jones researched several haiku journals, and the first piece he submitted was accepted for publication, an experience he said “invigorated” him and kept him submitting.  Two more haiku were then published by Clarke University’s Tenth Muse.

Writing poetry is a learning process he experiences right along with his students. He has shared his work with his classes, and one poem in particular, “Villanelle of the Song Tra Bong” (forthcoming in Tule Review), was inspired by Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a work Jones assigns his first-year students.

During the process of rediscovering the practice of writing poetry, Jones said he came to realize that haiku, although enjoyable to write, is not his best form, and he pursues other poetic genres when writing each week. “Sunday Morning,” a poem in loose couplets, is featured in Christian Century.

Read “Sunday Morning” by Dr. Mark Jones

Other poems have appeared in Bewildering Stories, Boston Poetry Magazine, Chrysanthemum, The Copperfield Review, Crack the Spine, Haiku Journal, Lantern Magazine, Niteblade, Paper Wasp, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Poehemians, Red Booth Review, Songs of Eretz, and Vine Leaves Literary Journal.