This week, we meet poet and environmental educator David Martin. He lives in the pine forested foothills of the Wet Mountains in southern Colorado. For Martin, poetry is what he calls “artful communication and connectivity” to each other, ourselves, and the natural world. Today, he shares with us an excerpt of his poem The Ground Nest.
David Martin:
Poetry is important. I think it might even be necessary in today’s world. I think that there’s a great disconnect right now between people, between each other as people, between our inner and our outer worlds, our daily life, our inner emotional or spiritual world, between people and nature. The poetry I like is very connective and illuminates those connections between people and their world. So, I think poetry is a very connective form of communication.
I’m going to read an excerpt from The Ground Nest which is a book composed of a single long poem. It was written, for the most part, on a hike on a particular day that just seemed to have a circular quality to it as far as birth and death and life. The notes from that day just seemed like one long poem to me, so this is from the middle section of The Ground Nest.
Excerpt from The Ground Nest
her nest
takes its shape
from her form
the cup of this soft nest
from the cup of her belly
her eggs, perhaps the shape of womb
perhaps the shape of flight
were almost round
not bound to roll away
but formed to a tight circle
and she herself
formed from the larger circle
woven around her
the one star
and the map of its relatives
the thin blue skin of sky
greenhorns peak snow
the rain and watershed flow
the creeksparkle and song of fire and water
seeds that might become anything
from root to crown
leaves dappled song and silence
this blue-green gem
within
hollowed filled and filed with cool shade
sheltered from the suthering winds
and hallowed
sleeping mirrors
nestlings with no second thought or guess
About the poet:
David Martin is a poet, writer and environmental educator based in southern Colorado. He is the founder of Middle Creek Publishing & Audio and the author of four collections of poetry, including his most recent work The Ground Nest. Martin is also an avid collector of feathers and wild mushrooms.
About the host:
Steven Law is the co-producer of KNAU’s series PoetrySnaps! He is a poet, essayist, storyteller, and the author of Polished, a collection of poems about exploring the Colorado Plateau by foot and by raft.
About the music:
Original music by Flagstaff-based band Pilcrowe.
PoetrySnaps! runs the first and third Friday of each month.
