Hugh Martin

"...thoughtful recollections, scary memories, articulate reflections, and the resolve of a man who has been there."--Publishers Weekly At age nineteen, Hugh Martin withdrew from college when his National Guard unit was activated for a deployment to Iraq. After training at Fort Bragg, Martin spent 2004 in Iraq as the driver of his platoon sergeant's Humvee. He participated in hundreds of missions including raids, conducting foot patrols, clearing routes for IEDs, disposing of unexploded ordnance, and searching thousands of Iraqi vehicles. These poems recount his time in basic training, his preparation for Iraq, his experience withdrawing from school, and ultimately, the final journey to Iraq and back home to Ohio. Hugh Martin holds an MFA from Arizona State University. He is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Introduction by Sinclair B. Ferguson. No ordinary book of memoirs concludes with the promise, ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ But the biography of Jesus is no mere commemoration of the departed; his promise makes the Evangelists’ account a living history. “Take the Gospel record in your hands”, says Hugh Martin, “and you have the means of causing you to realize Christ’s presence.” Whether you are burdened, anxious, failing, sorrowful, or hardened, Jesus’ promise means that his perfect words come with power to people in every condition and that he is present with his people in every situation.