Celebrate Roethke’s Birthday May 23-25, 2022
We’re teaming up with the Saginaw Art Museum and other partners for a three-day celebration of poetry in honor of Theodore Roethke.
Learn more about the events happening May 23-May 25, 2022 here and plan on joining for some or all of the festivities.
Here’s a look at the events:
Poetry Panel – Cuttings: When Sprouts Break Out
Date: May 23, 2022 @ 5:30pm
Location: 1805 Gratiot Ave. Saginaw, MI 48602 (Roethke Home Museum)
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.
Come hear new poems that began with old work. Five poets — Jim Daniels, Thomas Lynch, Kathleen McGookey, Cindy Hunter Morgan, and Anita Skeen — have selected several of Roethke’s titles and first lines from his poems as “cuttings,” and then they used those cuttings as the beginnings of their own poems. These new poems will be read at this event along with Roethke’s original poems that serve as inspiration. Poets are always in conversation with those who came before them, and this event honors how important old work is for new work. Happy Birthday, Theodore Roethke!
Participating Poets: Jim Daniels*, Thomas Lynch, Kathleen McGookey, Cindy Hunter Morgan, Anita Skeen
*Wrote poems for us to share but won’t be at the event
David Wojahn – Homegrown Cosmologies: Animism and Elegy in Roethke’s “Where Knock Is Open Wide”
Date: May 24, 2022 @ 7:00pm
Location: Online
David Wojahn discusses the arc of Roethke’s “Where Knock Is Open Wide,” a piece that invokes regression as its primary tool for the poet’s attempt at spiritual rebirth. The poem exquisitely embodies a formal inventiveness and sense of spiritual yearning that derives from grand and abiding obsessions and not from mere compulsion and self-imitation.
Poetry Open Mic in the Gardens
Date: May 25, 2022 @ 5:30 doors, 6:30pm poetry
Location: The Saginaw Art Museum 1126 N. Michigan Avenue, saginaw, MI 48602
Bring a poem of your own to read out in the Saginaw Art Museum gardens! If you plan to attend, pre-registration is requested but not required. Poets can sign up upon arrival at the event.
Thank you to the supporters of this event:
Delta Humanities & Learning Center, Public Libraries of Saginaw, The Meijer Foundation, Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Arts Midwest, Ohio Arts Council, and National Endowment for the Arts,