Rodger Martin’s books can be purchased at NatureCulture Books using the title links below.

The Sleeping Dogs of Lubec

The Sleeping Dogs of Lubec is a collection of poetry and short prose pieces built around the sometimes subtle at other times quite public influence dogs generate as they integrate themselves into our culture.

“Rodger’s sleeping dogs don’t lie. They know their canine ancestors, their legends in ancient caves, and we learn of ourselves in our relation to them. Rodger deftly moves across history, at each stop showing where we fit, an existence we neglect at peril.  This volume, a kind of “collected” through his career,  engages at every turn, with sensuous, heartfelt lines, perfectly executed (some prose, a few cats, and several silly pups!). Open wherever you wish and be rewarded.”— B. Eugene McCarthy

https://www.nature-culture.net/the-sleeping-dogs-of-lubec

The Nemo Poems: A Martian Perspective

The Nemo Poems is  a remarkable collection of powerful, world-spanning writing . Moments, places,  ideas, and images are placed in unexpected but meaningful coThe Nemo Poems is  a remarkable collection of powerful, world-spanning writing . Moments, places,  ideas, and images are placed in unexpected but meaningful conversation.  The emotional and intellectual depth to these pieces moves and impresses.   “I dream/I stand with all the dead of all wars/ buttressed against my knees …”  is just one of many lines that stays with me.   —Brinda Charry, author of  The East Indian – A Novel

The Nemo Poems rake through a world and a cosmos to find fragments to shore against our ruin. Rooted in the Vietnam horror but transcending that grim era, these poems speak to our current state of urgency with a finely tuned poetic that melds art, myth, and a Martian perspective on our history. Enhanced and enriched, this new version of Rodger Martin’s first book is even more relevant to our times, and an elegant read. —William Doreski, author of Cloud Mountain

Martin’s lens on the American war in Vietnam is unique and devastating. He portrays two opposites of a combat engineer’s experience, both the daily horrors of actions, and the heartbreaking beauty of the landscape. Martin’s elegiac poems use metaphors of Vietnam’s natural world, such as the lizard and its prey, the cicada. The 19-year old hero, Nemo, is the cicada. But even when a chopper medevacs him out, what he sees is the moon illuminating the jungle. “His fear of falling lost itself in the beauty below.”  —Terry Farish, award-winning author of The Good Braider, and Flowernversation.  The emotional and intellectual depth to these pieces moves and impresses.   “I dream/I stand with all the dead of all wars/ buttressed against my knees …”  is just one of many lines that stays with me.   —Brinda Charry, author of  The East Indian – A Novel

The Nemo Poems rake through a world and a cosmos to find fragments to shore against our ruin. Rooted in the Vietnam horror but transcending that grim era, these poems speak to our current state of urgency with a finely tuned poetic that melds art, myth, and a Martian perspective on our history. Enhanced and enriched, this new version of Rodger Martin’s first book is even more relevant to our times, and an elegant read. —William Doreski, author of Cloud Mountain

Martin’s lens on the American war in Vietnam is unique and devastating. He portrays two opposites of a combat engineer’s experience, both the daily horrors of actions, and the heartbreaking beauty of the landscape. Martin’s elegiac poems use metaphors of Vietnam’s natural world, such as the lizard and its prey, the cicada. The 19-year old hero, Nemo, is the cicada. But even when a chopper medevacs him out, what he sees is the moon illuminating the jungle. “His fear of falling lost itself in the beauty below.”  —Terry Farish, award-winning author of The Good Braider, and Flower

The Nemo Poems — NatureCulture

The Battlefield Guide

The Battlefield Guide Cover

The Battlefield Guide provides “… a series of postage-stamp renderings of little known stories and details drawn from original source material and mainly from the turning point of the [Civil War] war, with an eye-witness from today, the poet himself.” —Ellen Jane Powers, Off the Coast

“Rich in precise details and vivid imagery, [The Battlefield Guide] brings a fading chapter of American history into sharp focus while acknowledging the lessons learned since, giving these poems an engaging sense of immediacy. Martin displays an extraordinary gift for wordplay, yet his sympathy toward those who fought and died is always evident, as in “Antietam National Military Cemetary”: “Silence gathers the weight of centuries. / I hear its voice carry in it the chorus / of the children never born.” Insightful and beautifully written, Battlefield Guide is a real treat. —Kathi Hennessey Ex Libris

The Battlefield Guide CD

The CD, included with the book, features a reading of Gettysburg and Antietam by the author, with musical accompaniment composed by Tim Mowry, and played by The Battlefield Guide Trio (Tim Mowry, Val Blachly, and Ellen Carlson).

Listen to a sample from The Battlefield Guide CD below.

The Blue Moon Series

The Blue Moon Series Cover

The Blue Moon Series creates a place whereHuman imagination can run wild at night when the moon is full and shadows prowl and the screech of an owl penetrates our marrow. . . . gut wrenching in its pristine beauty. Martin’s poetic skill and Gowey’s illustration commemorate a tragedy amidst Nature’s elegance.” —Laurel Johnson,  Senior Reviewer for Midwest Book Review and Review Editor for New Works Review.

For All The Tea in Zhōngguó  

An image of the front and back cover of the book For All the Tea in Zhoegguo
Poems and translations in both Mandarin and English.