Acclaimed Poet Visits Susquehanna University
By Haley Zeller
On Wednesday April 9, acclaimed poet Terrance Hayes visited Susquehanna to read his work and speak to students in the English and Creative Writing departments.
Dr. Catherine Dent opened the evening with a quote from the poem “Disruption, Hesitation, Silence.” Then, she called student Grey Weatherford Brown up to stage, who introduced Terrance Hayes.
Hayes is a well-established writer who invented “the golden shovel,” a form of poetry inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks. It is best defined by the Academy of American Poets as a poem where “each word of one line from another poem serves as the end word of each line for a newly constructed poem.”
Hayes is also a distinguished professor who has taught in Japan, as well as various states within the U.S. He has taught in Columbus, Ohio and New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, he is a professor of English at New York University.
Hayes has won many awards, in an incredibly long and well-deserved list. Some of the most notable are his 1999 debut poetry collection Muscular Music, which won a Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His 2018 collection of more than seventy sonnets, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, won the Hurston/Wright Award for poetry.
As Terrance Hayes began reading, it’s easy to see how he captivates his audiences with witty humor and conversation. He talked about writing sonnets in 2016, and the relentless dedication he illustrated by writing 1-2 sonnets each day. Writing these sonnets was a way to escape the negative emotions he felt from the news, which has become so easily accessible.
Hayes’ writing was crisp and incisive but also very humorous. For example, he described a newer poem he’s writing that’s all about bacon. The South Carolina American sonnet was inspired by an interaction with his cousin, who offered him hash covered in hot sauce and served on instant rice. He contemplates the smell of bacon, burning fat and salt, and how the taste is “as sweet as the soul of the pig.” It was clever and amusing, showing how creative one can get when drawing ideas from everyday things.
Although Hayes read sonnets from My Past and Future Assassin, he read other poems as well; a few by the titles of “Continuity,” “Holidays in March,” and “The Book of Knowledge.”
“Holidays in March,” mixed the image of individual days of a month with that of marching soldiers. Emotions and people were woven in effortlessly, telling an important story of dedication—from Harriet Tubman and veterans to ordinary people and Girl Scouts.
“The Book of Knowledge” contemplated what it would be like to discover the first book ever. Before the printing press, things like rain, milk, ash, and ink were used to write on various versions of paper. Writing the book was described as the author “conceiving” the book in their womb. The meaning of the book depends on the world and the reader, the time period it’s read in, and its characteristics.
As the night came to a close, he left some advice for aspiring writers. “Inspiration can be anything. Pay attention to the world, even really simple things.” He also said that writers should write as often as they can, even if it’s not good. The first draft is never the final product, and revisions are crucial. Before you can revise your writing, though, you must get something on the page. “Make yourself visible,” Hayes said. “Professionals don’t get stuck. They write all the time.”
When asked how to write without letting emotions take over, Hayes responded, saying, “Whether you’re writing about politics, heartbreak, music, or joy, as the author, you choose to make love and kindness.”