Hoosier poet visits campus as part of Kellogg Writers Series
By Ashley Keihn | Staff Writer
David Shumate, a nationally known poet from Indiana, visited the university as the final speaker for this semester’s Kellogg Writers Series, reading a variety of poems from his published works on Nov. 5.
Shumate kept the audience interested in what was to come wondering where each poem came from and what was behind each one.
“Each line of his poems is like a scripture you can’t erase,” said Elizabeth Weber, a professor in the English Department and one of three professors in charge of the series, in introducing Shumate.
Weber compared his poems to “finely crafted diamonds distilled to the finest,” prefacing the poetry that was to come in the rest of the evening.
Shumate, with his flowing almost soothing singsong voice, read poems from his book High Water Mark which was quoted by critics as being “the best book of prose poetry in years,” as well as another collection titled The Floating Bridge, and a collection not yet published.
Shumate read such poems as “Mannequins,” about a man who had purchased many different mannequins at auctions and had them standing all over his home with proper names and clothing and his lover standing still among them.
“Big Brother Loses his Virginity,” “Metaphors,” “The Jewish Ghetto,” “The Pilgrim of the Poem” and various other poems featuring many different topics. He read a poem called “Amish” about life in the Amish culture and about the coming of age ceremony observed by teenagers to see if they are going to be part of our world or stay part of the world they already know.
His poems kept the audience full of emotion with pieces that made them laugh such as “If you ask a poet to draw a map,” and even touched upon more serious topics with a few poems.
“A poet stops action and says let’s focus on this for a moment,” said Shumate in talking about the poem “The Jewish Ghetto,” a poem about the physical place, its importance and what emotions it can bring to a person.
In a question and answer session at the end of the readings, Shumate talked about how he as a poet fits into his poems.
“When I write a poem, which I do every morning, I never know where they are going to go, its intuitive. Sometimes my poems begin from a little note, I follow it and see where it takes me, some of the poems are based on something concrete such as ‘The Jewish Ghetto,’ but often times I myself wonder where they come from,” Shumate said.
Next semester, fitting into the Indiana theme, fiction writers for young adults, Kathy Day, John Green and Doug Crandall are visiting the university as part of the Kellogg Writers Series.
