Mark Jarman writes poetry about his own life, but he does so in a perfectly narrative way which offers insight into the universal struggle of identity. As Jarman admits in "Ground Swell," he writes about his teenage years a lot, but he can't help but do so because those years were so formative in his experience of both identity and self-worth. He's writing in order to recreate the moments which transformed his self-narrative, in the hopes of helping the reader accomplish the same in their life. In keeping with the theme of adolescence, Jarman writes primarily about to subjects: church and surfing.
At church he is taught all kinds of things about how to behave, but Jarman seems continually preoccupied with feelings of doubt or guilt. He desires to know what God has to say to the worthless ones. In "Descriptions of Heaven and Hell" he admits to assuming he's going to hell until realizing one day how ludicrous that was because the only thing awful that could happen in death is to not find any love, but the person who thinks this must already have encountered love and thus remain perfectly eligible to encounter it again in death. In a tricky way, Jarman navigates the messages of the Christian religion through the lens of self-doubt in order to arrive at conclusions supported by the Scriptures but entirely personal and abstract compared to traditional readings.
As for surfing, Jarman ties his time on the beach to a visceral encounter with life. Those years blend together in a repetition described in "The Supremes" which amounts to the flavor which Jarman tries to preserve in the rest of his life. He doesn't want to forget the taste of salt on his lips or the achey sting of skinned knees after getting dragged under. As he explains in "Ground Swell" those experiences surfing formed the foundation of a journey in his self which culminates in acceptance of his own value and a recognition of how brief but precious life is.
