Why David Martin wrote a poetry collection about the Alberta oil sands

David Martin won the2014 CBCPoetry Prizefor Tar Swan,a poem about the history and myth of the Alberta oil sands.

The 2014prize jury Roy Miki, Rachel Rose and Katherena Vermettedescribed the poem as speaking to "central concerns of our time, particularly here in Canada: the consequences of coal and oil extraction, environmental degradationand our responsibility to the natural world."

Martin developed a poetry collection that includes his prize-winning work. Also titledTar Swan,the richly written poems explore the human and environmental cost of drawing too much from the land.

Martin told CBCBooks how he wrote the collection of poems.

A unique take on a familiar story

"It was a different way to think about the oil sands. It's something that we read about in the newspaper nearly every day. In Alberta, it dominates the political conversation. Even nationally, this is something coming up all the time. There's a lot of concern about this industry and itsenvironmental impacts.

"For me, this was a different way to approach it to think about the oil sands, to think about the history and how it got started. It's gotten beyond us, and that'swhere the mythical angle comes inthe swan ofTar Swan. The swan is this character weaving in and out of other people's experiences, guiding their work and undoing their work and influencing them. That's a metaphor for the oil sands that has become this enormous idea that wecan't escape."

The poetry of history

"One of the things I had to keepin mind as I was writing was that this was not a history book. There are alotof history books aboutthe oil sands. Thebig advantage that poetry offers is afocus on language. Each of the four characters in the collection speakin their own poetic style and language.

"There's an oil sands developer who writes in block text pieces because he's usually giving speeches. His plant mechanic writes in crisp, terse lyrical short poems.There's anarcheologist whowrites poems made up of two-line stanzas; they take on a grid-like structure that reflects his scientific mind. The swan'spoems are 13-line poems that seem like sonnets but there's something not quite quite right about them there is a moretraditional look to his poems. I developed this dramatic narrative to escort characters rather than offer a traditional history of the industry."

Advice for emerging poets

"For people getting into writing poetry, I usually advise to read as much poetry as you can and to read widely. Sometimes we find certain types of poets that we like and we stick with that vein of poetry, but there is such a range of poetry being produced today. Even if it's not the style you're going to be writing, you can glean so many different ideas and inspirationfrom the wide variety that you come across."

David Martin's comments have been edited and condensed.