D. S. Martin
Author of The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry
Series
Works by D. S. Martin
The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry (2016) — Editor — 9 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Martin, Don
- Birthdate
- 1958
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Places of residence
- Brampton, Ontario, Canada
- Occupations
- teacher
poet
editor
Members
Reviews
Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Members
- 19
- Popularity
- #609,294
- Rating
- 4.5
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 7
“A glance over your shoulder / assures you you can always get back” to the final “Destination” it is a magical trip.
Martin takes us in 77 poems through seven sections that include poems that look at the role of the poet, riff on ideas and lines from Lewis’s writings, explore his fantasy settings, muse about communication, the vastness of God and the final state to which we aspire.
You may wonder, do readers have to be familiar with Lewis’s writings themselves to get these poems? No. They stand very well on their own, though Martin has included an acknowledgment section where he names the inspirational source of each poem.
Lewis’s (and Martin’s) philosophical bent is seen in many of the ideas on which Martin expands. What proves something is true?
What is real? From “The Poet Weaves Three Worlds”:
Many of these poems whisper eternal truths that we pick up in echoes from Bible texts like these ending lines from “The Sacred Fish”:
and these bits from “The Dogs” (obstacles, challenges, troubles):
What I like about these poems is the way Martin has made the ideas his own by bringing in elements of his generation. In the poem “Something” (about music) the title evokes the song by the Beatles and the poem contains the line “his guitar gently weeps” p. 36.
In “On the Latest Impending Doom” which, the notes tell us, got their inspiration from Lewis’s poem “On the Atomic Bomb’ Martin gives his dooms a 21st century feel:
Most of the poems are free verse. There are a few sonnets (though not of the traditional rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter variety) and one very traditional rhymer. Still, Martin’s crafting fascinates me. He uses lots of rhyme—perfect and imperfect within and at the ends of lines that sing to each other across stanzas unifying the piece as well as making it a pleasure to read aloud. “After Evensong” is one such that I thought had an almost lullaby quality to it:
I could go on about the titled sections and the way titles of each are hidden within poems, the whimsical wordplay within many of the selections and the wonderful note of hope on which the book ends. Having found so many goodies on a quick read-through, I now want to return and reread to see what other surprises this collection will yield in both the categories of idea and technique.
Conspiracy of Light reminds me of the moon. In reflecting the sun’s light, the moon shows off its own topography. In the same way Martin’s poems reflecting on the brilliance of Lewis, reveal the man who wrote them.
(A shorter version of this review was first published in Faith Today.)
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