“Poetry is language that heightens our sense of what it means to be alive in the world, what it means to be human,” said academic speaker Jeff Daniel Marion in his talk on poetry and creative writing on Feb. 13.
Marion has done many things over the years. For almost 10 years he was the poet-in-residence for the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Humanities. He also has taught creative writing and English at Carson-Newman University. Marion said that when he taught he was able to talk about the two things that he loved the most: writing and literature.
“There is nothing like seeing a student’s eyes light up whenever you have gotten something across to that student. Maybe for the first time, this student realizes the truth of something and to have been the agent of that, there is no reward like that … to know you played a role in somebody’s life,” Marion said.
Marion has also written and published four poetry chapbooks, a children’s book titled Hello, Crow and nine poetry collections.
At the lecture, Marion was asked how he defined poetry.
“It is almost outside the boundaries of definition because it is many, many aspects, many approaches. … It raises the emotions to a high level. It makes us see and feel and taste and touch and smell the world more fully,” Marion said.
“I have always said that poetry is like a large house with many windows. There are a lot of different windows you can look out of. So there are different approaches to poetry, and I think that it’s important to allow for that diversity and openness in poetry, rather than to try to narrow and define it.”
Marion said that there are limited restrictions on a poem.
“The one requirement I think is that the poem needs to engage you in a sensory awareness. Through one of the five senses and language, it has to engage you. It doesn’t necessarily have to teach you anything. It can be experience-based, make you feel something [or] make you think about something,” said Marion.
The poems that he read were based on his experiences and used one or more of the five senses. One poem was about the smell of crayons. Marion said that out of the five senses, smell was the most difficult to describe. He said to pay attention to life and experiences, because life is a muse, and that a journey was made for each poem.
“The way most of my poems start is that a phrase pops into my mind,” Marion said.
That phrase turns into a poem that is written and trimmed down as much or as little as needed. He said that sometimes he rewrites or trims about 20 to 25 times.
His one tip to writers, beyond the rewriting, is to read.
“I’m serious about [reading], because the more you read, the wider your perspective of the world is going to be and the more attuned you’re going to be to language, and ultimately that’s what we’re all after,” Marion said.
