FOTR Weekly: First "The Power of Language" Speaker Series Event This Week & More to Come
“In my veins, in my bones I feel it,–
The small waters seeping upward,
The tight grains parting at last.”
– Theodore Roethke, “Cuttings (later)”
May brings our final segment of the Saginaw Chapbook Project Virtual Speaker Series: The Power of Language. This segment features contributors to the critical anthology A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke, edited by William Barillas and published by Ohio University Press in 2021. Each week, William will introduce one or more contributors who will speak about the Roethke poems they address in their anthology contributions.
Kicking off The Power of Language segment, Edward Hirsch will discuss Roethke’s “Cuttings” and “Cuttings (later)” tomorrow, May 3, at 7pm on Zoom. Read the poem from this week’s Roethke excerpt here, and read on to find out more about our upcoming events!
Upcoming this Week
First Power of Language Speaker Event on May 3: Theodore Roethke’s “Cuttings” and “Cuttings (later)”
with Edward Hirsch
On May 3 at 7pm via Zoom, Edward Hirsch will share his essay on Theodore Roethke from his new book, The Heart of American Poetry (Library of America, 2022). The essay is an overall appreciation of Roethke’s work that drills down on the two “Cuttings” poems from The Lost Son and Other Poems. These works were published by Doubleday in 1948 in Roethke’s second book of poetry, titled The Lost Son and Other Poems. You can see a first edition copy with Roethke’s signature here.
Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published ten books of poems, most recently Gabriel: A Poem and Stranger by Night. He has published six books about poetry, including 100 Poems to Break Your Heart and his latest volume, The Heart of American Poetry. He is the editor of the Library of America’s edition of Theodore Roethke’s Selected Poems.
Praise for Edward Hirsch’s latest collection, Stranger by Night:
“Hirsch is interested in capturing ephemeral flashes of human vitality with a lyricism that rises from unadorned eyewitness.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“The poems capture the inner world in the outer world, tender and human. More often than not, at the end of every poem, I said to myself that’s beautiful.” – Mike Wilson, winner of the 2019 Kentucky State Poetry Society Chaffin/Kash Prize
“Emily Dickinson famously recognized something as genuine poetry by whether or not it took the top of her head off—poetry as surgical saw or shotgun. Hirsch’s effect is generally subtler, but no less powerful. Whether you’re a poetry lover or a poet yourself, you will find that Stranger by Night gives you new eyes, and the top of your head will levitate gently, letting in light for them to see by.” – Kurt Luchs of Exacting Clam
Looking Ahead
Speaker Series on May 10:“The Longing” and “Meditation at Oyster River”: Pacific Pastoral and the Desire for Home in Roethke’s “North American Sequence”
with Katharine Bubel & Nicholas Bradley
On May 10 at 7pm via Zoom, Katharine Bubel and Nicholas Bradley will engage in a conversation about the first two of the six long poems in Roethke’s late “North American Sequence.” They will consider how “The Longing” expresses the poet-speaker’s desire to be at home in his Pacific Northwest place, while “Meditation at Oyster River” expresses Roethke’s pastoral vision of the Pacific Northwest, where, in his reckoning, a restless spirit could be calmed and sustained.
Special Thanks & Additional Info
We were blown away by the massive, engaged audience for Diane Seuss’ speaker event on April 26, so thank you to everyone who spent the evening with us! To Diane Seuss, thank you for your powerful readings of Roethke’s poetry and your intimate discussion of the ways these works have interacted with your own life and development as a poet.For more from Carol Barrett, check out this review of her book Pansies (purchase here) from Mom Egg Review, and read a sample of her poetry at The Grief Diaries.
A Look Back on the Health and Wellness Series
In the wake of an international public health crisis, themes of health and wellness are on all of our minds. These speaker events have reminded us that physical and mental health are intertwined, and showed us how poetry and writing can be a powerful tool for working through difficult times. Engaging with health and wellness asks us to be patient with ourselves and with others, much like a poem asks its reader or writer to be patient and kind with its lines as meaning unfurls. We hope that these events have left you grounded and expanded your collective imaginations about what it is to be alive today, how we might live more kindly with ourselves and those around us, and the ways that writing can connect us, heal us, and open us to the world.
Health and Wellness moderator, Carol Barrett, made some memorable statements during these events that I’d like us to consider one last time at the close of the Health and Wellness series:
“I hope as we reflect on what we’ve heard, that we will find new openings. That, even in our brokenness, we will find a way to open again, because the world needs us to do that. We have gifts that need to be shared, especially now, in this time when there is so much brokenness.” – (March 8, Stimulating the Satori Moment in Poems)
“I feel like we are in the presence of enormous courage. When I hear your stories and your life stories, and also your art and your commitment to art, whether visual or the art of writing, I have a strong sense of an enormous passion.” – (March 22, The Creative Life and the Perpetual Question: Is It Madness or Sanity?)
“Those positive things only emerge because we dare to deal with the things that are difficult.” – (April 19, The Healing Poem: How Does It Work?)
May we all reflect, find new openings, follow our passions, and journey toward healing our brokenness with courage as we dare, every day, to deal with the things that are difficult. Thank you Carol Barrett, Tess Gallagher, Jennifer Clement, Suzanne Mallouk, and Diane Seuss for your wonderful contributions to this segment of our 2022 Virtual Speaker Series. We have greatly enjoyed your conversations and presentations, and we hope the best for all of you and your work in the years to come.
To those who have attended these events, thank you for taking the time to join us and listen to these speakers. We hope you’ll stick with us for the Power of Language series, where we’ll dive deeper into the works of Theodore Roethke with esteemed Roethke scholars.
To learn more about Edward Hirsch and see where you can purchase his books, visit his website. See Poetry Daily to read a sample of his work, and check out Penguin Random House to read an excerpt from Stranger by Night.
See Katharine Bubel’s page here to read more about her awards and publications.
For more on Nicholas Bradley see his page here. To read more about and purchase his poetry collection, visit the University of Alberta Press page for Rain Shadow.
Thanks to generous support from Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Arts Midwest, Ohio Arts Council, and National Endowment for the Arts, our events are free and open to the public through May 31, 2022.
Kellie Rankey holds a BA in Creative Writing from SVSU, where they currently remain a student. Their work has appeared inThe Normal School,Tiny Molecules, and theMichigan Sociological Review, and is forthcoming from Wrongdoing Magazine.