In 1996, the Academy of American Poets started celebrating National Poetry Month during April. This month helps remind the public of the important role poets play in our culture and society. In celebration, we’ve asked poets across the College to share their stories with us.
Thom Dawkins, lecturer and SAGES teaching fellow
Dawkins has three moments that come to mind when he reflects on how he got into starting poetry. The first was when a college professor prompted him to memorize a Rilke poem. “I fell in love with poetry as a kind of language you speak with and through your whole body,” he said. His second memory involves another college professor who worked with him on a literary magazine. “That led to me falling in love with poetry as a tool for building community,” he shared. Finally, the “love of his life” (his wife Alexa) talked him into going back to school to get a Master of Fine Art because she knew, better than him, he admitted, that poetry was always going to be an important part of his life moving forward.
Favorite line of poetry?
“…may you / open your eyes to water / water waving forever / and may you in your innocence / sail through this to that” —Lucille Clifton
“Students in my classes probably know those lines from Lucille Clifton by heart,” Dawkins said. “We recite it often as a reminder that we’re all in this together, that we’re all traveling together, and that whatever challenges we’re facing, we will sail through them, together.”
Dawkins published work:
After Alluvium (Three Sheets Press), a chapbook of poems, is a tribute to the people and places Dawkins loves in rural and industrial, Western Pennsylvania. Copies can now be found in rare book sales online or you can ask Dawkins for a copy!