Surrounded by art in the Reece Museum, poets shared their hearts with poems written by themselves and legends alike.

On Sept. 11, from 3-4:30 p.m., the “Poetry as Conversation: An Interactive Series” at the Reece Museum featured many guests from the community. It was the first written word event of the semester and was a collaboration with the University of Tennessee of Chattanooga Department of English. Featured poets included William Pitt Root, Pamela Uschuk, Richard Jackson, Valencia Robin and Lacy Snapp.

Photo of the audience at the Poetry as Conversation event. (Emma Kate Montag/East Tennessean)

Dr. Jesse Graves, ETSU’s poet-in-residence and professor of English, started the event by dedicating it to Dr. Bert C. Bach, a contributor to the arts at ETSU.

“Please keep him in mind,” said Graves. “He was a consequential leader to ETSU for a half-century.”

The next written word event will feature Major Jackson for the Black American Writers. There will be a round table conversation at the Culp Forum room at 2 p.m. on Sept. 18 and a presentation at Brown Auditorium at 7 p.m. Future events will include Jeff VanderMeer and Lisa Quinn.

After the show, patrons could buy the authors’ books and get them autographed by the writers.

The poets went around the table and read poems. Afterward, the audience had the chance to ask questions and talk about the poems.

Snapp read poems about wood and travel, going in depth about her personal life. “A Body of Still Marble” used ekphrasis poetry to describe an angel statue.

Uschuk connected with the audience with her poems about her family name “Uschuk” and its Ukrainian origin. She talked about war in her first poem. In her second poem, “Whole Notes” she talks about her interaction with wolves and traveling.

Jackson told the audience about his childhood love of science with his first poem, “Quantum Entanglement.”

Robin started her first poem with a love story to autumn because of her love of walking, hiking and Michigan.

Root with his poem, “Calling the World to Order” from his book “Strange Angels” told his story of how hard he worked to get where he was.

Photo of William Pitt Root. (Emma Kate Montag/East Tennessean)

“If I could present myself like this rooster presents himself, I could be somebody,” said Root.

Jackson then talked about how jazz music influences poetry. His poem was inspired by the song “Alabama” by John Coltrane and the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. He wanted to mimic Coltrane’s rhythm in his poem.

Following that, Robin performed an ekphrasis based on two songs and a poem.

Root performed a poem about his friendship with James G. Davis and his experience in the mines. They dealt with the alleged ghost of “White Boots.”

At the end of the round, questions were asked about the poetry process. Each poet answered the question in their own way.

Jackson answered that it is about the senses. Using a notebook to write what someone hears, sees and reads every day. He also noted that by noticing rhythm poems will subconsciously come to the poet. Snapp compared her work with wood to poetry, both including a lot of revising, editing and cutting.

Uschuk compared her work with the French horn and jewelry by comparing the textures, designs, patterns and plundering of work to poems.

“All of my poems come first from the heart,” said Uschuk.

Robin said that it takes a lot of writing and rewriting. Root said that exploring the different forms of poetry and sounds of the world can help see what the poet likes.

“I wrote poems every form I could discover,” said Root. “Whatever works for you.”

Reactions through the audience said that the poems made them feel awestruck and in wonder about such lovely work and amazing poets.

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