Poetry of the Natural World: A Conversation with Maria Mortensen Davis

In this lyrical episode of Dialogue Out Loud, poet Maria Mortensen Davis joins Dialogue poetry editor, Terresa Wellborn to discuss her two stunning poems in the Spring 2025 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought: “Dowser’s Prayer” and “Holy Places.”

Davis, who lives among “the mountains and Mormonism” of northern Utah, shares how her poetry arises from her embodied experience as a mother, a Latter-day Saint, and a careful observer of the natural world. The conversation flows from paleolakes and virga to sacred routines and Sunday walks, as Davis reads her poems aloud and reflects on the questions that shape her work: What does it mean to find revelation in root systems or snowfall? What holiness have we overlooked in our pursuit of eternal reward?

From licking dew off the skin in the desert to watching seeds dance between a child’s teeth, Davis’s poetry calls us back to the world we already live in—and asks us to worship with our eyes wide open.

Produced and edited by Daniel Foster Smith.