Jack Marshall draws linkages between past, present, and future to advocate for appreciating what we have, and being better stewards of it.

From “Birth took the bait”:
Beaks of birds who earthward break
their songs, in drought soar
to clouds for a drink,


a sip of what earth doesn’t offer
anymore, and summer vanishes,
like a stain that was once a shore.

Born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents who emigrated from Iraq and Syria, Marshall has received the PEN Center USA Award, two Northern California Book Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a nomination from the National Book Critics Circle.