New Cold Misty Day Haiku

Read the Haiku at my An Illuminated Path of Heart blog

~ David Anthony Martin
copyright 2013

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This haiku 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 marked headway on my novel Lost Dog and frequently contributing to my novel jam and very excited to have dreamed an epic dream which i am excited to write into an amazing novel or series called searth. More on that later.

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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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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Poem of the Week: Moments

These sunny days after the recent snows have been so cold, but from inside looking out the window each morning I see the sunlight move down Middle Creek Canyons walls and south-facing Mountain Shrubland slopes and slip silently into the Ponderosa Pine ecosystem gracing and touching everything with its yellow, golden light, illuminating the richness of the ruddy pine bark and the lichen but especially making the snow laden landscape glow with brilliance.

moment

sun presses honey slips
silently touching pines
parting snowy scrim
flake capped bundles
silent milk wide swaths
… [More]

~David Anthony Martin, copyright 2013

__________________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

_____________________________________________________________________
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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A Poem to Save a Forest

Recently a call went out to poets to send their poem, nature, animal poems to the Han Shan Poetry Project which would hang them on trees in a forest threatened to be sold to developers.  Han Shan was an ancient Chinese poet who posted his poems on the trees and rocks of Cold Mountain where he roamed and which was his home.

Gary Snyder first introduced me to Han Shan through his translation of Cold Mountain Poems, containing poems of Han Shan’s which had been found and collected. Han Shan’s wild zen poems about nature of the wild and the nature of man were very  influential in my personal growth and in the evolution of my craft.  To read the haiku Owl Light I sent to this project click on the link below.

Read the poem on my blog An Illuminated Path of Heart by clicking here:  Owl Light

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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.
__________________________________________________________________________________

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.
__________________________________________________________________________________

New Poem of the Week is about saying yes to life and love

light in the darkness

Last night the White Firs
pointed up at the stars
in the deeps of space

i thought i knew
and said yes, in agreement

but they are hundreds of years older than i
and rooted so directly in the earth,
they receiving sustenance by interfacing with stars

[More]

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This poem is from my notebook The nameless way woven with crooked genius and will be considered for inclusion in my next book of poetry currently being set to manuscript, Deepening the Map.  If you like this poem, please check out other samples of my poetry here on my blog.  You might also be interested in the poetry in Span, my collection of poems published by Rhizome Publishing which has just gone to paper back.

Span, is now available in a beautiful paperback version
with cover art by Matthias Valdez (Mo) of Last Leaf Printing
and published by Rhizome Publishing.

Span | A Collection of Poems by David A. Martin
Paperback, 144 pages.
$9.95 + tax and shipping.

span is a selection of poems written by David A. Martin, reflecting a unique undercurrent in the reawakening of environmental consciousness in the American west. (Read detailed description and reviews of Span below)

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About the book

David A. Martin, an environmental educator and naturalist, holds man’s separation from nature and man’s return to union with nature in both hands as he focuses on the beauty and elegance of Nature wherever he finds it.  These poems illuminate the simplicity and complexity of the inner and outer worlds of the poet.

Much of Martin’s earlier polemic works expressed the consequences of alienation from nature as being disastrous to the individual, humanity and the rest of the world. The poems in span exemplify the reunification, or possibly, ascension of the poet and the child within the man living in harmony with nature as a place of hope, healing, redemption and salvation of not only the individual, but also the human race and the rest of the world. 

His mature poetry celebrates the connection to and a reverence for the complex and intricate beauty of the natural world from the perspective of an embedded and informed Human consciousness. When asked about whether he considers himself a “Nature Poet” he replied “I have endeavored to live in, enjoy and explore Nature my entire life, so yes, it has a large place in my writing, but I would consider the genre of my work to be Human Ecology. I write a lot about the connections I find in the outer manifestations of Nature to my inner world and understanding of my place in it. My poetry is quite often born of ontological musings.” 

What others are saying…

“David Anthony Martin is a nature poet the way Frank O’Hara was a city poet. He has paid attention, assimilated the beauty and mystery of his surroundings, and let it color his poetry in delicate ways. He says, “everything will be alright just shut up and listen.” He draws from dreams and folktale and myth. He contemplates streams and trees and bears. And he does it in language that is beguiling, sly and as lovely as a September peach. These are poems to carry in your metaphorical pocket like small runic stones, with lines that you will want to contemplate again and again. Like this brief poem called “stream of consciousness:” “the moon is not in the quick silver stream, the moon is in the still, void-dark lake.” Span is delicious reading.”

~Corey Mesler, author of Before the Great Troubling and Notes toward the Story and Other Stories

“Thoreau, Cid Corman, Lorine Niedecker, Whalen & Snyder, Sam Hamill and now David Martin, a wilderness walker returning as the missing lynx in the lineage of nature based poetry heartbeating it’s way into our gorges & forests – it has the aroma of wild mushrooms & the flow of a raging springmelt. The poems span the distance between old friends. ‘Less like a voice / more like a knowing'”

~Mike Parker, author of Don’t Fall Off The Mountain and Wallflower Sutra

Find span on: Facebook

Find / Purchase Span as an eBook or Paperback on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble:
Paperback: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
          eBook:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

New poem of the Week honors the poetry of my friend Mike Parker

 

The head is shrunk, the bud is skunk, the punk’s a monk
for Mike Parker

I am lucky enough, having heard this poet read several times,
that I can hear his voice when I read the poems on printed pages

the rhythms and repetitions of wit, grit and woodstove ardor,
the raucous rumble and Stellar’s Jay squawking,
a socially conscious voice that exists as a pacifists fist,
mocking those more focused on shares than on sharing

the sudden shift in the timbre of the weather
when the clockwork winds blow him home

[More]

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This poem is in commemoration of the publishing of Mike Parker’s latest book of poems Walking on Water in a Razorblade Breeze by D’Spare Press.  His previous books, Sunflower Sutra and Don’t Fall off the Mountain are available at Amazon.com.

This poem is from my notebook The nameless way woven with crooked genius and will be considered for inclusion in my next book of poetry currently being set to manuscript, Deepening the Map.  If you like this poem, please check out other samples of my poetry here on my blog.  You might also be interested in the poetry in Span, my collection of poems published by Rhizome Publishing which has just gone to paper back.

Span, is now available in a beautiful paperback version
with cover art by Matthias Valdez (Mo) of Last Leaf Printing
and published by Rhizome Publishing.

Span is a selection of poems in what has been coined the Human Ecology genre written by David A. Martin, reflecting a unique undercurrent in the reawakening of environmental consciousness in the American west. (Read detailed description and reviews of Span below)

   Span  |  A Collection of Poems by David A. Martin

                                    

Reviews of SPAN

“David Anthony Martin is a nature poet the way Frank O’Hara was a city poet. He has paid attention, assimilated the beauty and mystery of his surroundings, and let it color his poetry in delicate ways. He says, “everything will be alright just shut up and listen.” He draws from dreams and folktale and myth. He contemplates streams and trees and bears. And he does it in language that is beguiling, sly and as lovely as a September peach. These are poems to carry in your metaphorical pocket like small runic stones, with lines that you will want to contemplate again and again. Like this brief poem called “stream of consciousness:” “the moon is not in the quick silver stream, the moon is in the still, void-dark lake.” Span is delicious reading.”

~Corey Mesler, author of Before the Great Troubling and Notes toward the Story and Other Stories

“Thoreau, Cid Corman, Lorine Niedecker, Whalen & Snyder, Sam Hamill and now David Martin, a wilderness walker returning as the missing lynx in the lineage of nature based poetry heartbeating it’s way into our gorges & forests – it has the aroma of wild mushrooms & the flow of a raging springmelt. The poems span the distance between old friends. ‘Less like a voice / more like a knowing’”

~Mike Parker, author of Don’t Fall Off The Mountain and Wallflower Sutra

__________________________________________________________________________________
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.
__________________________________________________________________________________

SPAN

Find span at: Facebook | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the book

David A. Martin, an environmental educator and naturalist, holds hands with man’s separation from nature and man’s return to union with nature as he focuses on the beauty and elegance of Nature wherever he finds it.  These poems illuminate the simplicity and complexity of the inner and outer worlds of the poet.

Much of Martin’s earlier polemic works expressed the consequences of alienation from nature as being disastrous to the individual, humanity and the rest of the world. The poems in span exemplify the reunification, or possibly, ascension of man living in harmony with nature as a place of hope, healing, redemption and salvation of not only the individual, but also the human race and the rest of the world.

. . .  [More]

Poem of the Week: “vessels”

I found this poem this morning as I was going through my notebooks from last year, and being in a Love-filled mood this morning I chose this as the weeks poem.  It is a poem of love, of new love and of the kind of love that when you find it washes all other notions of love away . . . and although it is a memory of a specific event early in meeting my soul-mate, it is also about the kind of love that people mean when they say “When you know, you’ll know.”

 

vessels

we found the tree lying down in the leaves
by the starry-skied riverside at night

the length of its trunk was a deeply grooved & grey corduroy
thick contrasting lines of dark and light

branches once raised like arms in solar praise
now stretched out amongst its own lost leaves
as though in relaxed star-gazing repose

lying down next to it similarly, our hearts open to joy delicious,
drinking deeply the full cups of each other;
the wine of warm and welcomed companionship and kisses
always full and raised to the lips when we are together

the muse was singing “hidden place” somewhere inside
though all i heard were frogs croaking, a nearby cricket
and the small sounds of hips and lips pressed and plied
fingers smiling, finding leaves in your hair’s gathering thicket

giggling, we got up and noticed a curious skeletal shelter in the shadows,
built of curved logs and limbs, and took shelter within its hollow frame
slipping through the opening as quiet as possible;
two invisible birds in a cage without a door,

like being inside a wooden boat in the early stages of construction,
turned upside-down as though it were intended to sail the spaces
between the canopies of the trees

suddenly, with the spine-like line of the keel
set to the sea of the stars, the deep infinity sparkling above
how  “steer board” came to be “starboard” in the romance languages
becomes a part of this story, a part of what i know of love

the structure above a reflection of this disembodied ship we are creating,
this vessel being constructed by joining lips and limbs, hearts and
hands cradling spines and fingers wetting warm and secret rudders
the tongues unspoken language raising remembered sails

with no knowledge of which wind will fill these sails tonight
i keep my attention to the internal spirit level and the wheel
as the gentle swells we push through move our bubble close to center
shifting our positions by heart and head, guiding this dream by feel

and gratefully knowing that wind & rain are why the seasons fade and roses die
i am satiated to take refuge in the eternal moments of togetherness now,
yet, simultaneously, to this new rich ground i secretly wish to turn my plow
for in your weather I find an affinity, a tandem flow

and as sudden as a spring rain, the old superfluous armor dissolves
within me something older and deeper is speaking clearly,
without obstacle or veil of allowing this garden to grow,
and letting this sound ship sail

for there are no stars to be found when one’s eyes are fixed on the ground,
and putting our lips and hips level with that starry pool we both drink our fill

~David Anthony Martin

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If you enjoyed this poems, you may wish to check out my book, Span, a collection of my poems. https://davidanthonymartin.wordpress.com/writings/books/span-a-collection-of-poetry/

New Poems of the Week: light in the darkness

light in the darkness

Last night the White Firs
pointed up at the stars
in the deeps of space

i thought i knew
and said yes, in agreement

but they are hundreds of years older than i
and rooted so directly
in the earth, they receiving sustenance
by interfacing with stars

i imagine this to be a far more direct relationship
than we mammals who are once-removed and ridden
with ignorance and cultural amnesia

. . .

This morning, while the green chile simmers
in a silver pot over a blue flame of burning gas
crows and jays call and hawks cry to each other
from trees darkly silhouetted against a baby-blue dawn sky
with floating shreds of cotton-candy pink clouds

i thought i knew
and said yes, in agreement

but their kind have been in this Earthen relationship
“50 times longer than us”

they use the stars to navigate at night
with a now instinctual ease

i imagine instinct to be the same knowing,
the same surety my hand holds
reaching over to cup your curved warm hip
in the middle of the night

and so when you murmured something,
half asleep, that i could not quite make out
i felt i knew, and said yes, in agreement

~David Anthony Martin

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If you enjoyed these poems, there are more poems archived on my blog, and you may wish to check out my book, Span, a collection of my poems.

I recently posted in the Mountain Park Environmental Center’s blog.  This is an amazing non-profit organization I work for which is dedicated to environmental literacy and education.

http://mpec.blogspot.com/2011/12/winter-wonderland-classroom.html