Poet Tod Marshall's 'Three Dreams From The Eastside Of The Mountains'
In "Three Dreams from the Eastside of the Mountains," a sprawling, rollickingly Whitmanesque love poem, Tod Marshall summons the wildly various landscapes and identities of Washington state.
"Ask the swirling dirt rising in spirals/from dusty furrows just outside of Ephrata"
Describing how he came to write the poem for the 2014 Bedtime Stories fundraiser for Humanities Washington, Marshall said the prompt was "things that go bump in the night," which inspired him to craft a "dreamscape."
"I've always been fascinated by myth and larger-than-life figures," Marshall said. "This poem plays with the mythic vision of ourselves that we cultivate in the Northwest: great coffee drinkers, fly fishers, beer brewers, mushroom foragers, software makers, trend setters and so on, and also utters sincere longing at the divides (ideological and visionary) that split our state."
Marshall's newest collection, his third, is "Bugle." His previous volumes include "The Tangled Line" and Dare Say,' and the anthologies "Range of Voices" and "Range of the Possible."
He's a professor of English at Gonzaga University, where he directs the writing program.
Our thanks to Verne Windham at KPBX, Spokane Public Radio, for recording Tod Marshall.
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Elizabeth Austen
Producer
Former Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen has been interviewing poets and producing poetry segments for KUOW since 2001. She began as an intern while in graduate school for an MFA in creative writing (poetry) at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Once she discovered the joy of blending her early background as an actor and director (Book–It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Festival) with her passion for poetry as a spoken art form, she was hooked. She's been producing poetry for radio audiences ever since. Her collection, "Every Dress a Decision" (Blue Begonia Press, 2011), was a finalist for the 2012 Washington State Book Award in poetry. She is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, "The Girl Who Goes Alone" (Floating Bridge Press, 2010) and "Where Currents Meet," winner of the Toadlily Press Chapbook Award and part of the quartet "Sightline," published in 2010. Elizabeth's poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac and online at Verse Daily, the Bellingham Review and DMQ Review. You'll find Elizabeth's poems in anthologies including "What to Read in the Rain" and "Poets Against the War" and in literary journals. She's performed at venues including Poets House in New York City, The Loft in Minneapolis, the Austin ArtSpark Festival, and locally at the Richard Hugo House Literary Series, Bumbershoot, and the Seattle and Skagit River Poetry Festivals. An audio CD, "skin prayers," featuring 26 original poems recorded with a live audience in the KUOW studios, is available on her website, www.elizabethausten.org. Elizabeth was the 2007 Roadshow poet, bringing poetry to underserved rural communities in Washington state under the auspices of the Washington State Arts Commission, Humanities Washington, and the Washington Poets Association. She is committed to fostering a broader understanding and appreciation of the literary arts in general and poetry in particular. She teaches frequently at Richard Hugo House, a literary arts center in Seattle, and she has been a visiting artist for western Washington school districts and colleges.
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