|
Fun of poetry spoiled by rigid
instructors, former U.S. Poet Laureate says
By Devin Felix
March 26, 2007 | Writing good poetry should come naturally,
but takes continued effort, a former U.S. Poet Laureate
told an audience of USU faculty and students Friday.
Kooser, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004
to 2006, took part in a panel discussion in the Haight
Alumni Center with three members of the USU English
department. The event was part of the May Swenson Project,
which is sponsored by the department.
"Poetry ought to be fun. It isn't like a problem
that has to be solved," Kooser said.
Kooser said poetry has been spoiled for many people
during the past 100 years because it has been taught
in rigid, inflexible ways. Students have been reprimanded
for finding any meaning in a poem that differs from
the meaning "in the back of the teacher's manual,"
he said.
Though it should come naturally, writing good poetry
can take a lot of perseverance, Kooser said. He said
he begins writing at 4:30 a.m. every day at his Nebraska
home, but only produces something he thinks is worth
publishing about once a month, he said.
"One of the reasons I'm a successful poet is that
I've done it every day for 50 years," he said.
Kooser said he began writing poetry when he was an
adolescent. He was small, he had acne, and he had no
athletic or musical ability, so he looked for something
else to set him apart.
"I just sort of fell upon the idea of becoming a
poet, an artist," he said. "I felt sure that would
make me seem romantic and interesting. It was all about
girls."
He began to dress like the beat poets of the time
and carry huge books everywhere he went so that he would
look like a poet. He also began to read and write poetry,
and he has been writing ever since.
The May Swenson Project is designed to honor and increase
awareness of poet May Swenson who was born in Logan
in 1913 and graduated from USU. She become a nationally
renowned poet and won most of the major poetry awards
in the country, said Paul Crumbley, director of the
project and associate English professor. She died in
1989.
Swenson had a large impact on American poetry and
showed that a poet doesn't have to write in only one
style, said panel member and associate professor Michael
Sowder. Kooser said Swenson's poetry had a large influence
on him when he was young.
"She could do anything," he said. "You could
pick up one of her collections and learn everything
there is to know about poetry."
If they can raise enough money, organizers of the
May Swenson project hope to hold similar events every
year, Crumbley said. Bringing more nationally known
poets like Kooser to the university in the future will
show the influence Swenson had on American poetry, he
said.
Poetry is important because it gives you a "fresh
way of looking at the world," Kooser said. A good
poem can make it so that the reader never sees the world
the same way again, he said.
Kooser also held a poetry reading Friday evening in
the USU Performance Hall.
MS
MS
|
