Enough

by Chris Martin

The Hymns sprung from two sources: French mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Hymn of the Universe and the Aboriginal tradition of Songlines. The former is a book that posits humanity (and science, elsewhere) as the mouthpiece of the universe. Martin agrees with that, insomuch as we sing the universe back to itself, creating a working circuit of existence and expression. This is where Songlines come in. Traditionally, Aboriginal children would inhabit a Songline, which is a map/song that describes how ancestral beings created the landscape during The Dreaming. Once you have a Songline you are responsible for periodically walking and singing that line to bring the universe back into existence. In essence it, like all Aboriginal culture, is a conservative project. We have all we need. What's already here. It's enough. Let's celebrate, acknowledge, and maybe even redefine. This is why each Hymn has a particular referent. With each poem I'm pointing at something already here and singing, "Holy shit, this exists!" Even if it's a Job or a Pause. Even if it's a Balloon.

Genres: Poetry

27 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Chris Martin is this very moment endeavoring to become himself, a somemany and tilted thinking animal who sways, hags, loves, trees, lights, listens, and arrives. He is a poet who teaches and learns in mutual measure, as the connective hub of Unrestricted Interest/TILT and the curator of Multiverse, a series of neurodivergent writing from Milkweed Editions. His most recent book of poems is Things to Do in Hell (Coffee House, 2020) and his first book of nonfiction is May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future (HarperOne, 2022). He lives on the edge of Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis, among the mulberries and burr oaks, with Mary Austin Speaker and their two bewildering creatures.