Brian R. Martens

"Three Raven Gate," is the first book of poetry by Brian R. Martens. It encapsulates his years of study about the mystery of life. While offering no magic solutions to life, many of the well-tuned haiku and poems challenge us to pause and think.

Brian R. Martens is a poet, writer, podcaster, and speaker, and he facilitates creativity workshops. He was born in Martensdale, Iowa and now lives in Forestville, California, and has adult children, Trevor and Natalie. He has two grandchildren, three-year-old Jack and three-month-old Desmond. He delights in his grandchildren and is active in their lives. He is a California Poets in the Schools teacher and attends open microphone sessions as often as possible. He loves to garden, take improv classes, exercise, and walk in nature.

His teachers and mentors say that Brian has always been a poet, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2017 that he read in Julia Cameron’s book "The Artist’s Way," about the “shadow artist” and realized that it was time for him to step out from behind being a shadow poet and commit, take a stand, and publish a book of poetry. He didn’t know how that would happen at the time but he had undergone enough training in his master’s in organization development plus many seminars in leadership, marketing, and many other disciplines that he felt he could create a book. He also felt it was time to trust the Universe and let go of how this creation might happen.

What he realized, after compiling the poems, is that this revealing of his inner thoughts and life in words is his salvation and a way to befriend myself. Rather than constantly looking outward for acknowledgment and recognition, he found that exploring his inner world and writing has been the real revelation, a source of peace and grace. It has brought him a sense of peace that the outer world has refused to offer up.