What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
Katherine Riegel taught my first poetry workshop. The creative writing Bachelor of Arts at USF required me to take a poetry workshop, which I did begrudgingly. Despite myself I loved it and I stuck with it. Jay Hopler taught my other poetry workshops at USF, and encouraged my engagement with imagism and music in language. I think there’s a prevailing narrative surrounding poetry wherein poetry is something that springs from the heart, and initiates from the poet’s early childhood. I had no interest in poetry until I was forced to write it in college. I’m so grateful for that requirement.
Judy Jordan was my thesis director in graduate school at SIUC. She made me aware that narrative was missing from my pieces, and encouraged me to tell my stories. Her own sprawling braided lyric-narrative poems provided a framework and exemplar for the work that became Sawgrass Sky. Brigit Pegeen Kelly was one of the most influential poets that Judy turned me onto to. Her leaping, long narrative poems inspired me to tell my stories with all their mess and music. I distinctly remember Judy giving me a copy of Kelly’s collection Song. Judy’s copy smelled like a lake, which was a good precursor to the dirt and surreality of Kelly’s poems.
No comments:
Post a Comment