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THE
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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