New Poem of the Week: Nightlight

I have been noting much of the early Spring miracles as of late, the unique quality of this time of year in Colorado is that it transcends seasons, some days are golden and balmy and I am grinning at the sprouted poppies and caressing new subtle colors in the thin skin of trees and the next day a soft blizzard comes to whiten and water the world, but a surprising thing happened this evening, something about the quality of light and stillness that evoked a summer morning memory when I was working on the Hobbs Family Farm in Avondale, Colorado.

 

nightlight

nights ink fills in the spaces between tree trunks
the moon spreads herself softly as snowlight
in the limbs of apple trees is that same stillness
remembered flashing in white patches on wings
…[More]

~ David Anthony Martin
copyright 2013
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More about the Hobbs Family Farm can be found on their Facebook page or at the website for their organic Farm Direct Seed Company.

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This poem is part of my current notebook. I have a manuscript, Deepening the Map being considered for publication, another manuscript, Owl Light nearly ready to submit and well on my way with this next notebook toward another manuscript in the works. I am also making great headway on my novel Lost Dog.

If you like this poem, consider reading a few of my new poems on my blog and checking out my book Span (Rhizome Publishing 2011, 2012) which will soon be out of print, but currently can still be purchased as an eBook and read on most devices or as a beautiful paperback to be held in your hands and taken with you on your day.  The cover art by Mathias Valdez of Last Leaf Printing takes the book as object” concept to a lovely level.  Span also makes a great, inexpensive gift for the book or nature lover on your list.

If you are unable to find a distributor with available copies, I do have a few copies left at home, contact me to purchase them via my blogsite and PayPal.

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Ted Kooser helped me write the new Poem of the Week

Ted Kooser,  former United States Poet Laureate (2004-2006) sugest in his book The Poetry Repair Manual (p.30) he mentions that he sometimes turns his poems upside down so that the opening lines are the last. He suggests that sometimes he likes this better, that it changes the flow of the information. I have found that shuffling poem stanzas in a different order than originally written also can have very interesting effects and inform the creation of the poem.

During the process of cleaning and reworking poems for Owl Light I recently used this technique for a challenging poem. The second stanza wasn’t working out well and so I flipped it on it’s head. When I did this I ended up seeing things i could rearrange and rework, this then led me to change a few choice words and work with the line length and eventually encapsulate the previous fragmented poem into one cohesive poem sans stanzas. The result is the poem ache, which now has added nuances and a more open relation to the reader and the readers interpretation, reception and companionship.

ache

little red flower beating in it’s phony, bony cage
stalk it a sunbeam, and what little water it cries for
put it to bed, soft and warm . . . [more]

~ David Anthony Martin
copyright, 2013

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This poem is part of my current work in progress Owl Light, a manuscript nearly ready to submit. I have a manuscript, Deepening the Map being considered for publication, and am well on my way with this next notebook toward another manuscript in the works.

If you like this poem, consider reading a few of my new poems on my blog and checking out my book Span (Rhizome Publishing 2011, 2012) which will soon be out of print, but currently can still be purchased as an eBook and read on most devices or as a beautiful paperback to be held in your hands and taken with you on your day.  The cover art by Mathias Valdez of Last Leaf Printing takes the book as object” concept to a lovely level.  Span also makes a great, inexpensive gift for the book or nature lover on your list.

If you are unable to find a distributor with available copies, I do have a few copies left at home, contact me to purchase them via my blogsite and PayPal.

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Poem of the Week: Prayer Flags

This poem was written after coming in from snow shoveling and having another incident of a reoccuring where the movement of the prayer flags brought to mind an illusion of something else, some other possibility which my mind threw up as a perceptual option with which to “see” reality.  It points to the nature of the mind. I also enjoyed the consideration that our breathing is much akin to the relationship and intended function of the prayer flag, that interdependent atmosphere of wind or breath becoming a relational connection to all carrying our spirit and influence outward as well as receiving the spirit or influence of all inward.

prayer flags

the mind regularly mistakes
porch corner’s prayer flags fluttering
for the hummingbird corner of my eye

at times it sees a squirrel on the rail
moving in increments to the napping spot

last fall their leaf colors caught my eye
turning … [MORE]
~David Anthony Martin, copyright 2013

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If you like this poem, consider reading a few of my new poems on my blog and checking out my book Span (Rhizome Publishing 2011, 2012) which can be purchased as an eBook and read on most devices or as a beautiful paperback to be held in your hands and taken with you on your day.  The cover art by Mathias Valdez of Last Leaf Printing takes the book as object” concept to a lovely level.  Span also makes a great, inexpensive gift for the book or nature lover on your list.

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To buy Span now with Paypal, Click on image below.

     

Span | A Collection of Poems by David A. Martin
Paperback, 144 pages.

$9.95 + tax and shipping.
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New Poem of the Week: Cottonwood Midlife

cottonwood midlife

cottonwoods, coming to leafless terms
with the lessoning light of the season

can now, so softly and safely reveal
the secreted nurseries of bird nests

…[More]

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If you like this poem, consider reading a few of my new poems on my blog and checking out my book Span (Rhizome Publishing 2011, 2012) which can be purchased as an eBook and read on most devices or as a beautiful paperback to be held in your hands and taken with you on your day.  The cover art by Mathias Valdez of Last Leaf Printing takes the book as object” concept to a lovely level.  Span also makes a great, inexpensive gift for the book or nature lover on your list.

__________________________________________________________________________________
To buy Span now with Paypal, Click on image below.

     

Span | A Collection of Poems by David A. Martin
Paperback, 144 pages.

$9.95 + tax and shipping.
__________________________________________________________________________________

A new early winter poem of the week

This morning’s meditation at the creek produced a nice little poem which speaks to the outer world as a mirror of the inner world and how there are times which we notice the difference between the way of the mind and The Way.

Stillness helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cold mornings

the creek is telling white tales
it heard in the dark,

ice at the lips of its banks

. . . [More]

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This poem is from my recently begun, new notebook, having submitted worthy and well-worked poetry from the other filled and falling apart notebooks in manuscript form.

If you like this poem check out my other Selected New Poems on my blog or consider the eBook or paperback purchase of my book, span (Rhizome Publishing 2011, 2012) which is a collection of Human Ecology* poems from 2000-2010.

*Human ecology is the subdiscipline of ecology that focuses on the human niche. Broadly speaking, it is a study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments

Human Ecology has a wide territory and manifesting in geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, zoology, and natural ecology. It is my hope that my poetics can be seen to have contributed to this spectrum by adding literature, biography and ontology to this list.

New Poem of the Week looks deep into the heart . . .

h  ear  t

when one looks deeply
into the core of the heart
[ . . . more . . . ]

 

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If you like this poem, please let me know, share it with others and check out more samples of my new poetry.  Span, my most recent collection of poetry in the Human Ecology vein is published by Rhizome Publishing.  It is currently available from Rhizome, Amazon or Barnes & Noble as an eBook for download to read on your computer, phone, eReader or other device.  It will be available in print sometime this month.

Subscribe to my blog for updates on it’s publication, subsequent publications, articles and links to my other work and works . . . there is also a Span Facebook page and you can follow me on Twitter as well.