Contributed by:
Tabitha Dial, YourHub.com
on 11/18/2006
Having been in literary communities since he was in high school, Denver Poet Laureate
Chris Ransick said that he's seen people ease when they attend literary events. They enjoy it, he said, and he and his wife can observe the same phenomenon of ease even when going to a
poetry slam event one night and a
cowboy poetry performance the next night. He relishes the moment where everyone enjoys being a part of their literary community.
Ransick read several of his poems and discussed community at The
16th Way: A Poet in the Community at the Englewood Civic Center on Nov. 17. The event capped off a course he taught at
the University of Denver called
The Maker, The Seer, The Knower: 15 Ways of Being a Poet.
"We all know, in some way, what community is in our lives," said Ransick.
He shared his experience of coaching a 14-year-old boy's baseball team one summer six years ago. He said that he set down the rule that they act like a team and never criticize each other, no matter what they do.
"If we do that one thing, we'll be the envy of every team out here," he said. And they were 15-1 that season and went to the championship tournament, winning five games in a row.
Ransick moved from his baseball team to his own family, sharing
Letter for my Father, a poem he wrote addressing his father, who had died when Ransick was 27. He said he was able to write it after understanding how the death had reshaped his family.
Not everyone adores their family, Ransick admitted, but "the bumps and warts come with the understated sense that they will always be there for you."
The 15 ways of being a poet come from the mind of late poet and professor
David Citino, who said that "the poet blesses and curses." Ransick read a poem for
Rosa Parks,
Elegy for Rosa, which he wrote as a blessing and
Ghazal for a Murdered Poet, a curse against domestic violence. Both are in Ransick's newest collection of poetry,
Lost Songs and Last Chances.
Ransick talked about how another facet of community is understanding. Artists and writers can help build bridges for members who see and think differently, he said.
"Community is at its best when it makes like easier (for those in it) or improves their quality of life," he said, explaning the essential flow of communities. "One thing that prevents us from connecting," he said, "is what we perceive to be barriers."
Not only does the need for connection lead to the unique role of poet as a person who keeps alive the knowledge of a community's ancestors ("You have to remember your history to have a community," he said), but it also leads to the poet as a voyeur -- "seeing a life, understanding the value of that life."
When a poet acts as a shaman, s/he "reads the symbols of nature to find things we forgot or need to know," said Ransick, in reference to Citino's work.
Ransick then welcomed thoughts and questions from the audience. When one audience member spoke of how she felt she was part of a foreign community through reading about another country, Ransick called literature "the cargo vessel of culture," a bit of poetry on the fly.
And being a poet, Ransick said, has helped him enter various communities. In Salida, he read his poetry at the
The Sparrows Poetry Festival.
Art Goodtimes also welcomed Ransick into one of his gourd circles in Telluride, where Ransick sat on the floor in a circle with others, talking about poetry. Ransick said he has even read his poetry before a jazz festival in Five Points in Denver.
"Poetry is like a ticket that helps you get in the door," he said.
Chris Ransick's
10 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference in Your Community
1. Get out of your box (literally out of the TV, out of the computer) and attend a cultural event outside your frame of reference.
2. Donate a book to your local library. 3. Volunteer to read to children.
4. Write a poem about your community. Or a letter or a journal entry. 5. ("Up to you," said Ransick) Vote for people who
really support education. "This is like the water that falls on the plant."
6. Get to know a local poet -- get to know that person's work. Attend their events. Get to know them -- discuss it with others. 7. Get to know a historical poet.
8. Support the arts in general. Buy books from local bookstores, buy tickets to local shows. If you can't afford to, convince others to. 9. Learn the flora and fauna of your local community. Evoke names in conversations with others.
10. Ask yourself, "How can I enhance my community," and whatever answer you get, go out and do it. |
Tabitha Dial's 11th and 12th
Things You Can Do to Make a Difference in Your Community are, of course, 11)
register at
YourHub.com and
post a story or photos about doing any of Ransick's ten suggestions and 12)
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You can purchase Chris Ransick's first and second collections of poetry at Ghost Road Press, an independent publisher in Denver.