Natasha Trethewey
Poets are the Rodney Dangerfield’s of the literary world, hovering somewhere around society writers at weekly newspapers, but each April during National Poetry Month they get a chance to strut their stuff; to test their mettle, to put it poetically. And in case you forgot LansingOnlineNews will continue the four-year tradition of running a poem-a-day. Anyone interested in submitting a poem should send it to [email protected]
And this April, MSU’s Center for Poetry is sponsoring the appearance of the National Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey; Virginia Poet Laureate, Sofia M. Starnes, and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith.
The MSU Center for Poetry, established in 2007, to promote the writing and reading of poetry has had a positive impact on poetry’s reception in the area; especially helping to bridge the “town to gown” mix between the University and the community. A recent reading by Milford-Mortician-Poet Thomas Lynch sponsored by the Old Town Poetry Series attracted a standing-room-only crowd made up of both University and community poets and poetry lovers. The MSU Center also believes that the creation of a Michigan poet laureate position would take poetry to the next level.
Oddly enough, Michigan once had a poet laureate. Hillsdale’s Will Carleton (1845-1912) who was most noted for his 1872 poem “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse” a treatise on how poor were treated in this country, was considered the State’s first and only poet laureate. Carleton, who wrote poetry during its heyday, also had his own literary magazine which he humbly named “Will Carleton’s Magazine: Every Where.” In 1919, The Michigan Legislature passed a law requiring teachers to teach one poem from his repertoire to their school children each year.
Sofia M. Starnes, the current Virginia Poet Laureate, finds it remarkable that Michigan doesn’t have a poet laureate.
“Only four or five states do not have one,” she said. Starnes said the positions are usually unpaid and have no budget, but are important to creating credibility for the literary form.
It’s not that Michigan hasn’t tried to establish a poet laureate over the years. In 1925, the Michigan Kiwanians lobbied for the appointment of a Poet Laureate and to have famed Detroit Free Press poet Edgar Guest named to the post. The bill passed the House and Senate without controversy but was vetoed by then Governor Alex J. Groesbeck.
Representative Chester M. Howell of Saginaw said he introduced the bill to reward Guest for “the cheer that his rhyme brought to so many hearts.” Guest wrote a daily poem for the newspaper from the 1920s through the ‘50s many of which ended up on refrigerators or in scrapbooks.
Phillip Levine, who lived and worked in Detroit for many years, was selected as the national poet laureate in 2011, but the post of an ongoing, official Michigan poet laureate has eluded the state’s literary community. It came close again in 2000 when a bill establishing the position passed the House and Senate but former Gov. John Engler refused to sign it into law.
Sofia Starnes
Starnes speaking by phone from the Virginia Festival of Books (Michigan by the way does not have a statewide book festival either) said “Poetry has the power to go to the heart of a thing and it will tell you something about who you are.”
“When you read a poem it connects with something inside you that you may not be aware of,” she said.
Starnes said that poetry helped her bring her past to this country when she moved to the U.S. from Spain in the 1980s.
“I was able to have it (my past) even though I couldn’t put it in a suitcase,” Starnes said.
“I didn’t come with any preconceived notions, but I admired Emily Dickinson,” she said.
Starnes finds her style of poetry is driven by her love of words and their symbolism.
“Take bridge,” she said, “The word bridge, we all understand and it is a symbol.”
She said that rather than writing about a specific river nearby her the word river takes on a more universal meaning and what it symbolizes may vary by the individual who writes it or reads it.
Starnes said she sees a lot of similarities between poetry and music.
“They both transcend time and place as well as race and gender,” she said.
She also said that she never starts writing about a “memoir” but the language will often take her there.
Even though she has been in U.S. since 1989 she still thinks about her homes in the Philippines and Spain but says “We are all immigrants, immigrants in time, leaving the country of yesterday.”
Starnes has written many collections including the critically received “Love in the Afterlife” and “Fully into Ashes.”
Cindy Hunter Morgan, a professor of creative writing at MSU, said she thinks human beings need poetry to be fully human.
“Having poetry in our life awakens us to a fuller life,” she said.
Hunter Morgan said she embraces both the power and dualism of poetry.
“It is a joyous part of life, creating a curiosity of life and exhilarating,” but she said, “It is not always joyous and can open up old wounds.”
She said that’s why “Sad music makes us feel good.”
Hunter Morgan who has written two chapbooks of poetry “The Sultan, The Skater and the Bicycle Maker” and “Apple Season” is currently at work on a collection or “poetry project” on Michigan shipwrecks.
“Every poem has some nugget of historical accuracy. I start with some kind of truth-what the ship was carrying or how the fire started that sunk the ship.”
She said “From that moment, I tell a greater truth like imagining someone suffering.”
Hunter Morgan said that appearance of the Poet Laureate at MSU is “a big deal.”
“There will be a change of atmosphere around here after her visit,” she said.
All events at the MSU Poetry Center are free and open to the public.
April 2, 7-8 p.m., Natasha Trethewey, RCAH Theatre (Snyder Hall C20)
April 3, 1-2 p.m., Q and A with Trethewey, MSU Main Library W449
April 9, 3-4 p.m., conversation with Tracy K. Smith, Snyder C304
April 9, 7-8 p.m., reading by Smith, RCAH Theater
April 16, 3-4 p.m., conversation with Sofia M. Starnes, Snyder C304
April 16, 7-8 p.m., reading by Starnes, RCAH Theatre
