WITNESSING THE POWER OF POETRY
A conversation with poet and educator Evan Oakley
Poet Carolyn Forché rose to literary prominence following the 1981 publication of “The Country Between Us,” a collection of poems written during her time in El Salvador with Amnesty International.
In the decades since, her work has been celebrated around the world for its unflinching exploration of social and historical oppression. Forché has also received numerous awards and grants, and was shortlisted for both a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.
On Friday, the internationally acclaimed poet and author arrives at the Rialto Theater for a weekend-long event hosted by the Loveland Poet Laureate committee, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the literary form.
Among the planned activities is a Saturday afternoon conversation with poet Evan Oakley, a Loveland native and Forché’s research assistant on the landmark 1993 anthology “Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness.”
Oakley, who lost his hearing at a young age, grew up in the foothills west of the city near Masonville, where he developed a love of reading and writing. He attended Thompson Valley High School, where he was also a member of the wrestling team and a talented painter.
After traveling out of state in pursuit of a fine arts degree, Oakley returned to Colorado and entered higher education himself. He is currently the chair of the English, Communication and Literature department at Aims Community College, though plans to retire later this year.
Oakley is also a member of the Loveland Poet Laureate committee and looking forward to seeing his former mentor when she returns to Colorado this weekend.
“She’s an important figure in American letters,” Oakley said of Forché. “She is probably one of the most internationally published poets America has.”
The Reporter-herald recently caught up with Oakley to discuss his work with Forché, his own poetic journey and what is coming up at the weekend event.
What initially sparked your interest in poetry, and how has your relationship with the art form evolved over the years?
I became a devoted reader at age 12 when I lost most of my hearing due to illness. I became a fan of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and his epic introduced me to a love of poetry. My relationship with poetry has evolved since then in the same way one’s physical and intellectual self evolves, step by step, without conscious plan. By college I was reading the Beats, connecting especially with Jack Kerouac and his searching, working class experience which led him through Cheyenne and to Denver — the first time I had found my own world represented in literature. I aspired to write then. Well, answering this could go on for days, but needless to say there were some fine teachers along the way. First being Loveland’s own poet eminence, Veronica Patterson, whom I met in my 20s.
How does living and working in northern Colorado influence your creative process and the themes your explore in your poetry?
It hasn’t occurred to me to think about this before, but I think it’s fair to say that the light and skies of this place, and its open highways and spaces, and the green oases qualities of its small rivers — at least as they were 50 years ago, in youth — continue to provide a backdrop to my imagination.
But thinking again of the Beats, and their vision of alienated searchers finding despair and transcendence in the Western United States . . . that’s part of my poetic DNA.
What inspired you to become involved with the Loveland Poet Laureate committee, and what do you find most rewarding about your work with the organization?
When Veronica Patterson was named Loveland’s first Poet Laureate some five years ago, I was talking to her at her downtown studio, and we decided to resurrect a project we had worked on together many years before. Beginning in the late 1990s, we had brought a whole tribe of U.S. Poet Laureates to Loveland. The inspiration to resurrect that project was just a desire to work with Veronica in her new role. So that experience from some 30 years prior was the true start of my involvement with the Loveland Poet Laureate committee. And I will say that in those years the philanthropy of artist Doug Erion, and the leadership of Susan Ison at the Loveland Museum, was a strong source of inspiration. Now of course the Loveland Poet Laureate baton has been passed to Lynn Kincannon who stepped up to take on a challenging role. In short, the unique energy for poetry one finds in Loveland has been the inspiration, and working with the people who take it forward is the reward.
As someone who has worked with Carolyn Forché, how has her work inspired or influenced your own?
That’s like asking how living in northern Colorado has influenced my work. Just as I don’t write many poems about mountains, I don’t write with the same cosmopolitan vision that Carolyn has. But just as the light and skies of this land imbues my work, my time as a graduate student/research assistant with Carolyn informs how I write. The example of staying connected — on some level — to those who suffer from oppression as Carolyn does, is something I always think about. On the one hand, one has to adhere to the total freedom of creative expression while at once keeping a moral grounding. Write about the strawberries in the bowl sitting in the light, if you want to, it’s lovely. But in the poem, or in the next poem, somewhere along the line, don’t forget where the fruit came from, the conditions it was grown under, the disenfranchised hands that picked it. The goal is to write a poem, not an essay, but in the poem of somebody who is thinking, the difficult reality of the world as it is will emerge. This I take from her.
As you prepare for the event with Carolyn Forché next weekend, what do you hope attendees will gain from engaging with her work and your conversation?
I think attendees will be intrigued by the way Forché’s work brings moments of love and loss, of social and political struggle, together in a lyrical and haunting way. She’s a humorous and charismatic person, so I expect the spark of interest in her work to be nurtured. By engaging, attendees will gain insight into the remarkable scope of a poet, editor, memoirist, activist, and professor, who has taught and presented at nearly every important university in the country, and many, overseas. Her work is wide ranging, international in impact, and an important part of American letters.
About the event
For more information or to purchase tickets for the weekend event with Carolyn Forché, visit lovelandpoetlaureate.org/events.