Teddy Macker teaches in the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. His first book of poetry, This World, has just been published.
Yours are very spiritual poems. They’re also infused with imagery from the natural world. Clearly, there’s a connection.
Firstly, spirituality and art do not seem parsable to me. And “nature” and spirit do not seem parsable either. To go one step further, I’ll borrow from Kenneth Rexroth, who said, “What is, is what is holy.” In other words, nothing is not numinous. While one part of me—a part I can respect and often heed—does feel concern about this problem or that crisis, feeling fear or anger or sadness (or all of the above!), another part of me knows that reality blooms by being itself. I think it’s possible, though certainly not easy, to try and make room for both truths, however paradoxical and tricky that may seem.