Who: Denver’s poet laureate, Chris Ransick
Denver’s new poet laureate scribbled verse in near obscurity until he was 40 and a Wyoming publisher took a chance on “Never Summer: Poems From Thin Air,” a slim volume that won the 2003 Colorado Book Award. That’s when writing-wise, things really began to fall into place for the 44-year-old Arapahoe Community College professor. “Never Summer” was reissued in paperback by Denver-based Ghost Road Press last summer, he delivered his second collection of poems, “Lost Songs and Last Chances,” to the publisher last week and he’s at work on a third volume. Now, on the eve of National Poetry Month, Ransick has been tasked by Mayor John Hickenlooper with raising poetry’s profile among the people of Denver, a job he says he’ll approach one line at a time.
You’re only being paid $2,000 a year for your two-year appointment, so this has to be a labor of love. Ultimately, it’s not about the stipend. The greatest benefit is what I’ll be able to do for others. We’re already talking about poetry more than in past years. The more we talk about poetry, the more it emerges from whatever shadow is over it. I want to try to promote as many other poets in Denver as I can. It’s not about me but whoever else I can find out there who is doing good work. I can bring them forward and say, “Listen to this person.”
So what’s going on in poetry’s shadowlands? In Denver, there are so many performance poets and street poets, and their work is overlooked because maybe it’s not written on a page. But I have to be honest about this too. I’m going out on a journey here, not finishing one. As much as I’ve been active with poetry, there is so much more for me to find out about.
Any key goals in mind for your journey? If I can do anything right with this, I hope it’s reaching out to young adults to see if I can’t energize them.
Why kids? High school is a passage, even when it’s going well. Teens are passionate about what goes on in their lives, and they often feel no one understands them. If they can find a poem, or a poet, and see “here’s a person grappling with what I’m working through,” at least it was this way for me, they can understand themselves as an adult, with legitimate concerns and issues.
But poetry seems like a very quiet pursuit, especially compared with the media barrage of modern life. You either use multimedia, or you get used by it. I think most people are unconsciously used. Poetry is an antidote to that, first, because there is no commerce attached to poetry – no one is going to send me a $600,000 advance for my next collection of poems. Because it is disconnected from the machinery of income and money, it has to work on its own merit. You have to slow down, think and feel. Poetry is not reactive.
It took a long time to find a publisher for your first collection. For a lot of writers, that’s how it is, especially poets. We keep hoping to find an audience. My book does sell, but I’m not quitting my day job. I’m gratified if anyone reads it.
POETRY SAMPLER
Colorado poets and publishers have embraced the Internet, using the Web to spread the word about events and new works. Denver’s poet laureate Chris Ransick directs us to a few of his favorite links:
Denver-based Ghost Road Press publishes poetry books – including a reissue of Ransick’s “Never Summer: Poems From Thin Air” – and advocates for poets, poetry and independent bookstores from its site. Look here for links to writers’ blogs, as well as regional event listings.
University of Colorado prof and poet Jake Adam York keeps track of the local poetry scene and his own work. Posted right now: A tiny taste of “Between Words,” his exhibition with mixed-media artist Emily vonSwearingen now hanging at Ironton Gallery, 3636 Chestnut St., Denver. He reads at the gallery April 11 at 6 p.m.
Take a peek at Chicana poet Sheryl Luna’s work and her writing process. When she’s not writing, Luna coordinates the learning center at Community College of Denver’s southwest campus.
Greeley writer Jeffrey Ethan Lee works with words and voices. Sample some of his work here. He’s a University of Northern Colorado prof, but one his “900-year-old winter moccasins/reflections after the facts” is included in an exhibit hanging at the CU Museum of Natural History in Boulder.
