My Tribute to two great poets: While I was finishing up the Ph.D. program at Western Michigan University, my second book of poems, Becoming Ebony was being completed since it would be my dissertation. My mentor, Dissertation Director and professor, a man I think of as my literary father, Herb Scott asked me one day if I knew Galway Kinnell, the very renowned poet who just passed this week. I said no. Had I read any of his poems, and I said no, had never seen one of his poems ever and really did not care why Herb was asking these questions. Well, you should read him and meet him, Patricia, Herb advised, but when youre working hard to finish a difficult almost dual major Ph.D in English/Creative Writing while taking care of four children and trying to reinvent yourself after losing everything, youre not going to go out looking for a poet just because you had to. But Herb insisted, You write like him, Patricia, and you write so much like him, youve turned in two poems that not only resemble two of his. He then bought and gave me a copy of Galway Kinnells Selected Poems, which of course have many poems I love to death. But I did not open the book until a year or so later after graduation. My book, Becoming Ebony and dissertation was already out after winning a Crab Orchard Award, and when I browsed through Kinnells beautiful book of poems, I laughed so hard and learned again to appreciate my dear beloved professor, the late Herb Scott. There will never be a duplicate to that man, I thought, because now I could see that in Kinnells Selected Poems were two poems, For Robert Frost, almost teasing the great Frost and in my book was also a poem, For Robert Frost, doing something similar. Also in Kinnells was a similar poem, The Dead Shall Be Raised Incorruptible, and in my Becoming Ebony was a poem, The Corrupt Shall Rise Incorruptible. As I studied Kinnell over the years, I could see how Herb in those years used his knowledge to connect my very African voice to the larger world of poetry, and how in that, he helped usher me into the larger literary family of writers, encouraging me in doing that. Here I was, never read this great man, whom poets are mourning today, but writing poetry of witness because of my own experience, and in doing so, almost imitated him without knowing. Goodbye, Galway Kinnell. When you see my darling professor, Herb Scott, tell him I am still writing, and I am still writing the way he wanted me to write. Thank you for helping to make poetry relevant even though you stood almost alone in your style and focus.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:51:24 +0000
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