Megan Muthupandiyan
Poet, Pilgrim, Illuminator
Poetry
Of the Earth
and Other Desires
With poems that arise at the intersection among phenological study, place, and memory, Of the Earth and Other Desires celebrates the locus poetica of our land communities and explores what they have to teach those who move through them about desire.
This volume was awarded the John Rezmerski Manuscript Prize by the League of Minnesota Poets in 2023. (54 p.)
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Illuminated Poetry
Forty Days in the Wilderness, Wandering
February 26, 2020 marked the first day of Lent, and the beginning of a 40 day spiritual exercise in which I wrote and illustrated a poem exploring where the sacred can be encountered in nature. Less than two weeks later, the world had irrevocably changed--the wilderness I sought to draw wisdom from more profound than I could have ever imagined.
This poet's journal sustained me during the dark, cold spring of lockdown and transformed my relation to creation, as one created, and as a creator.
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The title of Meg Muthupandiyan’s new book and the multi-layered titles of each poem are both ambitious and playful. They lead us to experience what she sees and feels with her multi-disciplinary poet’s eye and heart, framing the musical language and vivid imagery within the
poems. Ever alert to patterns grand and
small, she ushers us into a deeper sense of time and place and a renewed
experience of the natural world in these fine poems.
Margaret Rozga, author of
Restoring Prairie
Praise for Of the Earth and Other Desires
I am gobsmacked by this jewel of poetry. After decades of reading thousands of fine poems that satisfied but never shook me to the core, I have finally found a work that, in Emily Dickinson’s phrase, makes me feel “as if the top of my head were taken off.”
Both the title and the inventive format (GPS coordinates and Latin citations preceding each poem) intrigued me. What truly ensnared me, however, was the first poem’s opening line, “So the world tries its hand at the sublime.” As each poem unfolded, in Gibran’s words, “like a lotus of countless petals,” it revealed layer upon layer of metaphor drawn from nature, art, science, scholarship, technology, mythology—the list goes on. This book could spark a whole new genre in poetry--or in geocaching.
Shirley Balance Blackwell, author of Already There
The poetry of spiritual hunger and devotion is so rare in our 24/7 news cycle/social media age [. . . ] That she would recognize the retreat-like possibilities of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown demonstrates impeccable perception and priorities, but what's most satisfying is to read these gorgeous poems of a fellow seeker who uses her tradition and this moment in time to move toward "the death of certainty"
and to a re-sacralization of nature.
Paul E. Nelson, author of A Time Before Slaughter and American Sentences
Praise for Forty Days in the Wilderness Wandering
This is a collection of cumulative beauty, power and perception - each image, each line becoming a meditation for the reader and providing a delicate delineation of what is often seen but rarely considered. Forty Days In the Wilderness, Wandering is a journey of the personal and the universal; a moving meditation and powerful reflection on our place in a changing world.
Anne McMaster, author of Walking off the Land
Forty Days In the Wilderness, Wandering is a set of incantory daily meditations. These poems of intimate connection with spirit, the natural world, and the poet's friends and family are accompanied by the poet's own daily mandalas of artwork. Intense, searching, and celebratory, the poet records love, connection, and loss. She gives us a double report of her rich interior life in her words and drawings.
Robin Chapman, poet, painter, and author of The Only Home We Know
About Megan Muthupandiyan
Meg Muthupandiyan is a poet, artist, and educator. She is passionate about creating space for people to contemplate art, poetry, and the natural world, both in and beyond the classroom.
She is the founder of the Poetry in the Parks project (poetryintheparks.org), which explores the sacred beauty of our land communities through collaboratively created poetry films.