Walking Scarecrow

Winner of the Blue Light Book Award

Mark Tate is the author of three previous books of poetry Pommes de Terre (2001), Sur lie* (2002), and Rooms and Doorways (2003), and three novels, Beside the River, and its sequel River's End (McCaa Books, 2021), and Butterfly on the Wheel (McCaa Books, 2022). He served for ten years on the Sonoma County Poet Selection Committee for the poets laureate of that county. He is a long-time resident of Northern California where he lives with his wife, Lori.

From the sanctuary of Pineshadow (both place name and poetic persona), Mark Tate composes moments of tender, meditative attention, reminding us of beauty and intimacy, as well as what is lost to addiction, dementia, death, and delusion in a fractured world bent on following darkness. "How do we lose our way with this much light?" the poet asks. How indeed! Alluding to the Tang poet Hanshan, Tate writes, "I use what remedy/Is at hand to save the world." Tate's depiction of a Zen tea ceremony midway through the collection offers a kind of ars poetica, simultaneously describing the ritual and his verses, "bowing to every honored thing." With empathy and deft lyricism, the poet blesses our times of darkness with light and transforms them into an experience of the sacred.

- Terry Ehret, author of Lost Body and Night Sky Journey

Mark Tate's new volume of poems, Walking Scarecrow, is a microcosm of large-scale wisdom and beauty. Generously including bits of conversation with the ancients - Bashō, Li Po, and others - Tate interweaves deep questions about how to live richly and well with homespun scenes of his simple, rural life. Cold Mountain runs like a gold vein through the quartz of these poems. "Philosopher and Perch" and "Tea" stand out. Replete with the doings of birds and local flora and fauna, Tate's keenly observant eye, philosophical heart, and skillful use of surreal images invite us into the kitchens and backrooms of his world.

- Sandra Anfang, author of Finishing School and Looking Glass Heart