Poet and educator David Baker has lived in Ohio for more than thirty years, and his poetry springs directly out of his life and experiences here. These poems illuminate our villages and farms—from Lake Erie to the Ohio River—our big-city gardens, small-town neighborhoods, and family life. David is also one of the country’s leading eco-poets, devoted to the natural world—the woods, the fields, the backyards and creeks of our state, all the rich flora and fauna that live among us. Drawn from his eleven books of poems, David’s poetry readings are lively and warm. He’s eager to read his work and talk with you about the art of poetry, its important place in our lives and imaginations. See why Marilyn Hacker writes that David Baker “is the most expansive and moving poet to come out of the American Midwest since James Wright.”

This event was recorded as part of “Landscapes, Rivers, and Lakes: Ohio’s Natural Environment and a Changing Climate,” a series of three Ohio Humanities Speakers Bureau events examining the connections between the public humanities and the environment.