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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1986)
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Bugger K«ng* you wtt* receive a coupon tor TWilight stung at Willamette Pass good for a S T.0 00 Guest Pass a dur»r.g the foHowtng dares Januar / 3 March 29 1986 Fridays and Saturdays T«nfeght sfcang onfy t2 30pm 10 00pm THE WILLAMETTE PASS WINTER EXCHANGE BURGER KING it ' v - . , U*< V •; , jon Dally Emerald ODE Oregon Daily Emerald ODE Oregon Daily Emerald ODE son Daily Emerald ODE Oregon Daily Emerald ODE Oregon Dally Emerald ODE Son Daily Emerald OPE Oregon Daily Emerald ODE Oregon Daily Emerald ODE Dailr Emerald QBE Orermn n«.)» Kmn*m rw^, ru.l. nr Nature guides the poet oetry speaks to the heart. Each word resonates with significance that .asks the heart to ■ listen; the soul to res .pond. Enjoying poetry is an adyen ture’and a delightful experience that • ; mast people’deny themselves. f f -Thet's’a great loss.” says Eugene• poet. y; John Witte.. ’ ■ • V , • .'"I think the biggest misconception that • people ■ bring to poetry is that.- they .can't ':.underst'andit:.'.' Witte asserts. "Being amartist; • y.o'u' firid.yourself longing’for people to enter .'■fnlQ a relationship-with your'work in a simple,' • u'niutnred’wayr What-you set) islhatfpoetryjis Coifipletfely assessable — there's nothing being• ■'.'.concealed,” ta ■ ■' .:* '. .. WsUe, a'Univfersity instructor and-editor of -'^the-‘NbVtfiwfest- Review, recently .'received, an /Oregon 'Arts ■Commission grant for $2,000.. That-rnoney.will buy him time this summer to . work-pn•■'a.;project for which the. grant-was ■ reciejvea 'a.series of father-daughterpoems.. . »VV.itte became a father, tw.o ahd-pne-half-years v; a*?.., .• * \i - “I.entered into this adventure with a lot of * .trepidatlqn•.’■ Witte says. "I was concerned, as. ' ; anV person wRo guards his .or her time jealous '-I-|V, would ybe.'that it.• might,sbe -hn interference.. ■f apd-too muclvcoofiision/”-If fact , he found just ■ the dpposite.\His daughter, fdsephine, provid ed a, wealth of material .and a very welcome focus That'ftxfbs,has provided {He,inspiration • for a long suite of poems oh the experience of '• beingafather.^ .. 'C./Witte began writing poetry at age 21 „ After * a shy and introverted childhood., Witie says he ; .had a lot[of thing's on his mind-as a .child ,; but. had. a .very difficult 'time expressing them. ’ ' • ;. .“One of my more personal reasons that I write is* to. finally: tiy; terexpose some of these things that .J’ve had difficulty expressing fever sincfe I was alitlekid,” hte says. “Now writing comes easily, but'it comes slowly.' It'sa com plicated labor that involves equal parts of love and. toil,’’ he. adds. .. . \ Witte was hiorn in Albany. N.Y. He attend ed college jn Maine before coming to Oregon . to enter the University's graduate program jn fine arts. After, a seven-month fellowship in Massachusetts, he came' back to/ Oregon . in .1979 and assumed editorship of the University-based Northwest.Review' (publish ed three tirnes each year): His poems have ap peared hi many magazines. 'Including'.'The New Yorker, the Paris .Review; arid the American Poetry Revie.w. His .first book,-.“Lov ing the Days,” published ijn t978."is an eclec tic mix of nature, history, paijl,.acceptance, love and death. Witte often.uses nature and. specifically, birds to reveal something about human existence ‘ ‘ • .. “Eye found some of the best images, and some of the. best poetic metaphors from nature,” Witte says. “Nature provides a kind of mi/ror for ourselves, and birds are very im portant. Birds and people are the only creatures that walk on two legs, and birds have the added advantage of being ahle to fly. something for which people have a powerful longing. “Plying is the most perfect form of expres sion of the release from bondage to the earth, our kind of mortal shackles. It is that longing for pure spirituality or redemption that runs throughout my poems." Acceptance of the inevitability of death is also a theme that resounds in Witte’s poems. “There is a lot of grieving in all my writing,” Witte admits. “I guess I would have to suggest that the natural condition for people who feel deeply about life is one of grief. There Mwtfu CMIlM) lulu, WHU John Witte's daughter Josephine provides him with muck poetic inspiration. is a lot of abstract grief fn my work, a lot of col: lective grief. but there's a.lot of joy as well.” Sometimes, Witte works through the grief •through an elegy..r • \ "An'elegy is designed to.contejo terms, with-.that--seft.se of grief . It's something that helps the reader deal with grief.';’ . ; •'' Wit teds, currently' working cm a poem. an titled ‘"Ijachshund.'"' whiqh'o 'reiterates the •• theme of-human non-acceptance ;of:death.^.He explains thatdachshunds (German fc/r badger" hound)’were once cbtitiicTemLa .very, heroic -.“and extraordintirilyc'ouragebus auirnal. able.td .go clown’holes ‘fri total. darkne'ss and sCare'the. - monsteV-ilke. ferocious 'badger. out of its bur- ' ' row fcjr'thehbntG ‘d!; • d -'V . * "It seems ajmosl heait^wreiM-hihg when l; • see* a, dachshtfnd n'ovwtec:au«erit> L«»«%!(-so' .••ciwa'rfed.’ rninlaiurized'ancl inade.ridicuiouS," 'Witte■ says'Dachshund" depicts'a mail who ... is stopped-in a car with his.family'in a traffic ; ja.rncaused by an.acciderit . probably a very bad .accident' in which someone -has, been■ kllled While- the .miin'•reflects' on' thi|, ho. sees a • woman-walking heir dAchshuncl.-! /' ' . “Spdhe* poem ts a .reflectipn of-bow we • have somehow .lost thiscapadty to confront death d-*;. to^coofront the:.,monster .-r-. : We-ye, become. dwarfed and ..ludicrous' like the dachshund,’*'''Witte says: ’ - ; ;. ■ i • / On .the' theme .of flight,; perhaps as aO -escape: is 'Dream .of-.Return to Earth,'' from "Loving thel)ayi.”.lt depicts the speaker easin' . astronaut'. ^ Isolated and' weightless, who dreams of going home to Earth. .In a recent; manuscript. ’“Return- to; Earth.*' the speaker doesTgo hpmo. but finds it hard, to adjust to ;the '• realities pf earth’. - "V; ; < ‘ •..• - ■'* ' Witte.feeis that bei.ng;a parent has ground ed him, in. a sense, given him new' priorities, and a new direction for his .vyriting • "That experience reaily.dphs ground you in a way,-" lio says of parenthood. "So many, things .that 1 find'I iised tb dvvelloji, anci that used fei be,very troubling, seem insignificant now It makes your outlook a whole lot more realistic;" . / V";, ‘: '! -. Witte once wrote several poems that refer red to his nephew, whom he'felt, close to in a paternal way . Now he is writing about his own child, and another child is expected in May who will provide even more .-inspiration. "They growso quickly, ypurealize right frdm the start that you have set somthing in motion, which you guide and nurture as much as you can. but has a future of its own," he ex plains. "fhere is somehow something wonderful that's being gained and lost at the same time." Witte.hopes to Convey these feel ings in his father-daughter poems. "I think when .you're able to express something that's very simple and perhaps universal, and express it in a very dear way, it becomes very profound,’’ Witte says "People are sometimes confused by that, but i think it has to.do with a need for a greater simplicity in our lives Almost everything is available to us for the right price, but the one thing that is not available to us. and is becoming a rarity is clarity. •>.; "I write about things that are important to me and I try to express them in as clear a way as I can. My hope is that they are things that are important to other people as well. If the kind of befuddlenient, confusion and grief that I feel in my life is typical, then perhaps the clarity in expressing my point will help other people, or at least relieve for a moment their befuddlement and confusion." Story by Amy Moss