Welcome to the panel discussion for our Emergence--
The Next Word In Poetry events.
And I'm sorry for standing in front of people.
I'm going to squat.
And I just wanted to let people know
before we begin the panel that there's
some information in the back of the room about our classes
and workshops.
In two weeks, Charles Alexander is
beginning of class called Circling and Center--
Language, Poetry at its Peripheries.
And Eric Magrane, who's a U of A alum,
is teaching a class called Eco Poetry.
So if you're interested in that, you
can grab a flyer in the back.
And our panelists today are, in order,
Andrew Bode-Lang, Sommer Browning, Mia MacDonald,
Loren Goodman, Van Jordan, and Suji Kwock Kim.
The three latter poets are the poets who read last night
and are visiting from out of town.
Others are students in the Creative Writing Program,
both undergraduate and graduate here at the U of A.
Today is the anniversary of the White House Symposium on Poetry
that was boycotted by Sam Hamill and started the Poets
Against the War events.
And so Sam has asked people who are having
poetry events around the country to read a poem by either Emily
Dickinson, Langston Hughes, or Walt Whitman,
the poets whom the symposium were supposed
to be discussing to honor the events for Poetry
Against the War and to honor the poets who were originally to be
discussed at the White House.
So in that spirit, I'm going to read one poem by Emily
Dickinson, and then turn the panel over
to the panelists, who'll each give a five-minute statement
on new trends in contemporary poetry. Then we'll open it up to
conversation.
This is Emily Dickinson's "poem 16."
It's part 1.
"To fight aloud is very brave, but gallanter, I know,
who charge within the bosom, the Cavalry of Wo.
Who win, and nations do not see.
Who fall, and none observe, whose dying eyes,
no country regards with patriot love.
We trust in plumed procession, for such the Angels go, rank
after rank, with even feet and uniforms of snow."
OK and Andrew will start the panel
on New Trends in Contemporary Poetry.