“Yet for this we travelled
With hope, and not alone,
In the country of ourselves,
In a country of bright stone.”

– Theodore Roethke, “The Harsh Country”

In “The Harsh Country,” one of the previously unpublished poems included in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, the poet depicts a group on an ominous, uncertain journey. Through his use of the “we” voice, we as readers are brought into the journey. We walk side-by-side with Roethke across the stanzas, witnessing the ominous landscape of the poem and struggling against uncertainty. Then, in the close of the poem, Roethke reminds us that to be part of a “we” is to never be alone. Even when everything seems insurmountable, the transformation from an abstract “hardness of stone” in the first line to a more grounded, concrete “country of bright stone” in the final line suggests a muted optimism. In other words, Roethke may be telling us that when we look to find ourselves amidst a community, we can find the hope and support needed to make it through all of our personal and collective struggles.

It is in that spirit of community and support that we are excited to announce the Saginaw Chapbook Project, a collaboration with Saginaw Valley State University and the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. Our work in 2022 is driven by this project, from the 2022 Speaker Series, to a new Poetry Workshop Series beginning in March, and more. The project will culminate with the publication of a handbound, letterpress anthology of poems capturing the collective presence and mood of voices from the Great Lakes Bay Region – and one of those voices could be yours. Find out how by visiting https://friendsofroethke.org/chapbook.

Looking Ahead

On March 1 at 7 p.m., Holly Hughes and Rena Priest will close out the Place and Landscape segment of our 2022 Virtual Speaker Series with a talk titled A Gathering of Voices from the Heart of Cascadia. They will share about their experiences with The MADRONA Project – a periodical anthology of work by and about writers from the Pacific Northwest – and contributors Jessica Gigot, Alicia Hokanson, Sandra Jane Polzin, Claudia Castro Luna, and Carolyn Servid will read some of their work. We hope you’ll register and join us on Zoom for this amazing event. 

Just two days later, writer Jared Morningstar will kick off our virtual poetry workshop series on March 3 with a workshop titled All About Careers: How What We Do Reflects Who We Are. Register today – space is limited.

Special Thanks & Additional Info

Thank you to Dr. Brian Gilmore for joining us and sharing his engaging, insightful, and fun poetry with our audience. Oscillating between a humor and a seriousness that always feels genuine, Dr. Gilmore’s words remind us that there is meaning in everyday things, that these everyday things are parts of what makes a place feel like home, and that there’s a real value to being open to new experiences in new places – to “just see how things go.” Oh – and that having bats in the house is not normal, even if we get used to it here in Michigan. Dr. Gilmore’s voice brings his words to life, and we can’t wait to see what that voice has to say in the poems to come.

For more by Brian Gilmore, see his author page at the African American Literature Book Club (AALBC) website and check out his blog at Medium.

Thank you to all of our grant partners, workshop facilitators, board members, and volunteers for their contributions toward making the Saginaw Chapbook Project a reality. We’re very excited about these next few months, and we’re grateful for all of your hard work and support.

Thanks to generous support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Arts Midwest, the Ohio Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, our events are free and open to the public through May 31, 2022.

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Kellie Rankey holds a BA in Creative Writing from SVSU, where they currently remain a student. Their work has appeared in The Normal School, Tiny Molecules, and the Michigan Sociological Review, and is forthcoming from Wrongdoing Magazine.