Early in his writing career, Mark DeCarteret would sit with pen in hand, waiting for moments of inspiration that he thought would yield mountains of publishable poetry. He’s since learned that inspiration doesn’t come in a flash. It’s derived from the steady stream of human experience, which can be channeled into poetry only if the author is emotionally and mentally receptive to the ebb and flow of life. Think of radio waves, which constantly pulse through the air but produce a discernable message only when listeners adjust their antennae. If an author is tuned into the continuous flow of insights and observations that all humans experience, they can channel their words to create something beautiful.  

DeCarteret’s fourth collection of poetry, “(If This Is the) New World,” was published this year by March Street Press. The Seacoast will celebrate its release with two readings: on Wednesday, April 18, at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth and on Thursday, May 10, at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter.

DeCarteret’s poetry blends emotive and powerful imagery. Nature, religion, politics, family, aging and death are just a few of the topics that he dissects with his lines. “And you tore at the soil / with something like defiance, / the bluntest form of prayer,” he writes in a poem called “The Skeleton.”

During a recent visit to Breaking New Grounds in Portsmouth, DeCarteret wore a collared blue shirt and round, tinted eyeglasses, the same shade as his sandy-colored hair. DeCarteret is now a seasoned poet, having moved beyond the idealism of youth, which he considers a distraction to writing good poetry. One fellow poet advises writers to wait until they turn 35, seclude themselves somewhere without distractions and then start writing poetry, DeCarteret recalled.

Originally from Lowell, Mass.—hometown of beat poet Jack Kerouac—DeCarteret now lives in Stratham. Several teachers encouraged him to pursue writing at a young age, although the same teachers were very candid about what it means to be a poet and the challenges the pursuit entails. “Poetry always seems like one of those things that people are drawn to, but they don’t necessarily know why,” DeCarteret said. “Their idea of poetry is often very different from what is actually involved in being a poet. My first teachers kind of laid out the path and I realized this was going to be a more serious undertaking then I first thought, but I felt like it was the only thing I could ever really do.”

He received his B.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College and his M.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire. In addition to writing poetry, he has taught at Chester College, the Maine College of Art and the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester.

The title of his new book is derived from a poem of the same name. It was inspired by a Jehovah’s Witness pamphlet that included a visual representation of what some consider heaven to look like. An image of a young boy with a panda bear sitting on his lap struck DeCarteret as an odd depiction of heaven. As pleasant as a panda on the lap would be, this couldn’t be the universal notion of what heaven is, he thought.

DeCarteret believes people understand heaven and hell based on their own individual notions of pleasure and pain. Many of the poems in his book explore the sordid underbelly of this world, but they also touch on the sublime possibilities of human experience. By exploring both themes, DeCarteret expresses his conviction that there can be no pleasure without pain, nor heaven without hell. The world’s duality is what makes it interesting and ideal.

“This world is as otherworldly as it gets,” he said. “I don’t think you have to go into the deeper recesses of the subconscious to find good subject matter.”

His poems are not simple documentations of his daily experience, though. “I certainly pull from my surroundings to some degree,” DeCarteret said, but living on the Seacoast has not inspired his poetry in any direct way. Although many of his poems are based on a “germ or kernel” of something seen or overheard, it usually gets left behind as the poem progresses.

“The sea is impressive, obviously. Nature is always a good standby,” he said. “Poets have made careers going back to nature again and again. That’s one of my problems. I don’t stay focused. I think you’ll find a lot of poets either discover their voice or resort to one voice and that’s something I’ve never been able to settle on.”

Just as themes of darkness and light vary in DeCarteret’s poems, so too does his voice. At times very accessible and at times slightly opaque, his poetry reflects the full spectrum of human experience. He is hopeful “(If This Is the) New World” will be well received, despite the fact that “poetry is always going to have a small audience,” DeCarteret said. “A bestseller for a poet is 10,000 copies.”