Echolocation by Sage Marshall

It’s not often you will catch me reading poetry and it is often hard to catch me reading fiction to be honest. I like fiction, it is a wonderful escape, but often reading fiction requires me to really concentrate on only that book in between my fingers. I have been trained over my 54 years on this planet to multi-task. I tend to avoid doing tasks that require a completely singular focus but I can do it and I honestly know I should do it more often, reading that is.

Sage Marshall and I had spoken briefly a year or so back before I even knew that he was a poet and a serious writer. I had read a few of his articles that had been published and we had talked about having him write something for our magazine but we couldn’t figure out a plan and the project fell off the radar. This last month in my planning to go to the Outdoor Media Summit in Missoula, I saw Sage’s name on the speaker list and I saw a quick review of his book. I jumped at the chance to reach out, told him I had a crisp $20.00 bill burning a hole in my pocket and I wanted a copy of his book of poetry.

This book has been my traveling companion for the better part of the last 20 days. My laptop, a pen, a notebook and my copy of ECHOLOCATION by Sage Marshall. I have read this book cover to cover and I have gone back to several poems while on flights due to a busy month of travel. Sage is significantly younger than I am and about 10x-the-writer that I am. His poems are tough and vulnerable. There are a few poems about hunting or fishing but mostly they are about life and growing up and being able to answer to yourself.

I am not sure I fully understand all of these poems, I can accept that I may not necessarily need to understand them. The great news is that I read them all and they took my mind on a journey that made me think about something other than the business at hand right in front of me. Reading this book was a journey that I am glad I took on and it is a book that will now go on my book shelf. It is a book I am proud to own and to have read. I believe this book will get pulled back off that shelf again someday on a different journey and I will probably learn something different from it. I encourage you to go and purchase it and go on your own journey with Sage’s writing.