Why Randy Lundy recommends finding nature, wherever you are
A longer version of this interview originally aired on June 6, 2020.
Randy Lundy is a Saskatchewan-based short story writer and poet. He has published three previous books, Under the Night Sun, Gift of the Hawk and Blackbird Song, which won the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award in 2019.
His latest poetry collection, Field Notes for the Self, deals with the idea of liberation from personal and inherited trauma and memories of violence inflicted on Lundy's Indigenous ancestors which continue to haunt him. Similar to his past work, this collection is rooted in observations of the natural world.
Lundy spoke with Shelagh Rogers about writing Field Notes for the Self.
Taking time out
"These are troubling times and difficult times — a lot of people are in difficult circumstances, financially and otherwise. But in terms of slowing down and looking around at the world, it could be a very valuable time for us. We are able to do the things that we normally don't have the time or maybe the energy to do.
It is a good time to slow down and build up — and try and live where we are immediately.
"People are at home with their kids, their dogs and cats and what have you. It's a good time to get out in the backyard and pay attention to what's right in front of you.
"Too often in our lives, we're not living in the moment. We're thinking about this, that and the other thing. It is a good time to slow down and build up — and try and live where we are immediately."
Nature, wherever you are
"Even living in urban areas, there is nature. Even for people who live in really large urban centres, there's gotta be a patch of grass somewhere. There's got to be a few trees or shrubs or a flower — and the sky is always there too.
"We might have to look up between the tall buildings, but it's there and it's constantly changing. It might not seem like it's there, but that probably has more to do with us not paying attention.
Even for people who live in really large urban centres, there's gotta be a patch of grass somewhere.
"I don't think it matters where we live on the face of the planet. There are those things that may be small and easily overlooked. So that was a good time to maybe have have that look. "
Inner and outer strength
"For me, the birds, the trees, the creek, the sky, the stars… they summon inner resources in me. That sense of peace, that sense of solace, that sense of quiet that many of us are yearning for in our lives — those resources are still in there.
"I draw upon the natural world to access those inner resources for myself, but they're in all of us. The poems, for me, turn into a looking inward, looking outward — it is endless work in rotation, or at the same time, sometimes, the outer often points us toward those inner resources that we all have.
I draw upon the nature world to access those inner resources for myself, but they're in all of us.
"Sometimes the poems will stir and muddy the waters. But the poetry I like the best is about that search for the calm waters and the still waters, where the sediment and silt are allowed to settle down to the bottom. There's some clarity that comes to our vision, whether that's looking out at the world or looking into our inner worlds.
"They are very closely connected."
Randy Lundy's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
