Mark Caskie

Welcome

My first poetry collection, Field Notes for Extinction, is now available! You can purchase a copy from the publisher, Grayson Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Scuppernong Books and by special order from most independent bookstores.

Field Notes for Extinction is a work of rare equilibrium—lucid, tender, and unflinching. These poems trace the vanishing world with the calm precision of a scientist and the reverence of a pilgrim. The poet writes not from despair but from deep attention, transforming loss into a form of listening. Each poem feels both intimate and vast, grounded in observation yet alert to wonder.
The collection’s quiet power lies in its restraint: grief becomes insight, and disappearance becomes a way of seeing more clearly. Field Notes for Extinction reminds us that to name what is ending is also to honor its having been—that poetry, at its best, preserves even as it mourns.

—award-winning poet Alberto Rìos, author of Every Sound is Not a Wolf