Poet Dawn Lundy Martin Presents at the A.K. Smith Reading Series

Drew Hoidal ’29

Contributing Writer

On Tuesday, April 7, American poet and essayist Dawn Lundy Martin visited Trinity’s campus to discuss her work as an author. The event was in the Reese Room of the Smith House, where students and faculty gathered to listen to Martin read her poems as a part of the Allan K. Smith Reading Series. 

During Martin’s visit, the poet shared sonnets from her latest works, including pieces from “Instructions for the Lovers,” published in 2024. Prior to her reading, Martin was introduced by Professor Ciaran M. Berry, who provided an overview of her well accomplished career. Martin has authored five poetry collections, including, “Instructions for the Lovers,” “Good Stock Strange Blood,” “Life in a Box is a Pretty Life” and “A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering.” Dawn has also been honored as a United States Artist Fellow, and is the founding director of the Center for African American Poetry. Additionally, Martin is currently a Professor, and Writer in Residence at Bard College and is working on her upcoming memoir, “When a Person Goes Missing.” Martin is hailed as a pioneer of modern activism theories, she’s also co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, and has received two prestigious poetry grants. 

Martin’s poems are “often described as dense and profound”, challenging conventional boundaries by blending fictional and nonfictional content to redefine what poetry can and cannot accomplish. When the discussion began, Martin opened the conversation through the topic of war, articulating an acute sense of urgency. She reflected on the challenges of speaking out in contemporary times, expressing the difficulty she experiences in finding words amidst the ongoing upheaval. Following this, she proceeded to read her sonnets, emphasizing their significance as a means of defining and deconstructing the concept of war through her literature. Martin’s poetry had a pattern within all works she shared, a sense that seems to revolve around exploring the nature of perception, and the interplay between presence and absence. One prominent pattern through Martin’s writing was how her imagination influenced the words she used to break down narratives, often capturing delicate sounds, like the “glass sound of breath.” 

Near the end of the event, Martin opened the discussion, inviting audience members to ask questions. One audience member remarked on her pacing, stating, “Your poetry sounds very patient and slow,” and then inquired about Martin’s approach to this method of patient pacing. Martin responded, “I try to get into the world of something. I aim to make it textual, and it’s often non-narrative in some ways. But there is a way of importance, of sensibility, that I try to textualize with language.” She described her tactics for slow self pacing, emphasizing the use of rhetoric to create an emotional experience that allows viewers to deeply engage with every aspect of her writing. Another audience member asked about her choice of topics when it comes to creating her poems, questioning why she tends to focus on certain narratives. Martin explained that she prefers to dive deep into subjects that “overwhelm her.” She described being so consumed by an experience that it becomes necessary to put it into words, whether it’s a memory or a scarring experience that lingers in her mind. Contemplating such moments can be enough to develop work with meaning. At one point, an audience member asked about how Martin explores the interplay between her poems, with some suggesting that her work often feels like a “conversation between two individuals.” Martin shared that one of her poems was a dialogue between herself and her long-term partner, highlighting the natural, conversational essence that permeates some of her poetry.