Jeff Johnson, English Teacher at Central Lakes College, is making Brainerd, MN a hot spot for poetry readings. Last year, in the series Verse Like Water, Jeff pulled in Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Li-Young Lee. To kick off 2014, Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Simic shared his wisdom and words as he read his poems and talked to the students and residents of the Brainerd lakes area. My favorite poem from the reading was Nineteen Thirty-eight about the year he was born. He also read one called Fork because ordinary objects need poems too, he said. Charles Simic shared where he gets some of his ideas, that some poems take a bit of life and living before they form an ending, and above all, it is part of who he is and the answer to the question, “Are you still writing poetry,” will always be “Yes, of course.”
Thank you, Charles Simic, for visiting Brainerd, MN. I felt inspired to keep creating, and started wondering what was happening in the world the year I was born.
Thank you, Jeff Johnson, for inviting so many excellent and inspiring poets to our community!
Post written by Mary Aalgaard, read more of her reviews and blogs at Play off the Page
