Poetic point of view

As one of the most successful and widely recognized contemporary poets in the country, Sharon Olds offers a wealth of work that has found its way into academia, high school classrooms and private homes. In a society that often thinks of poetry as being cryptic or inaccessible, Olds' work demonstrates an accessibility that transcends general misconceptions about poetry. She has published eight books of poetry and won numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for her work, "The Dead and the Living." Her visit to campus this Tuesday marks an important event not only for Gonzaga's English program, but for the entire community.

"Sharon Olds is one of our country's most important contemporary poets," Dr. Tod Marshall, director of the Visiting Writers Series said. "Her work has opened new subject matter to poetry — in fact, her bold explorations of women's sexuality, the domestic sphere, parenting, and violence have shaped a great deal of contemporary American writing by both men and women."

Olds is a poet whose work examines a wealth of human relationships in an intimate way. She offers convincing, if painful, visions of the complexity of these relationships, exploring the roles of mother, daughter, woman and lover. Her images make a strong mark in the readers mind, as in the poem, "I Go Back to May 1937," which reflects on the speaker's parents in the time before their marriage and subsequent children.

"I want to live. I/take them up like male and female/paper dolls and bang then together/at the hips like chips of flint as if to/strike sparks from them, I say/Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it," she writes.

Jeff Dodd, an instructor in the English department, sees Olds as important for her accessibility of style and language, as well as the content of her work and her place in the greater poetic historical structure.

"She's a master of seeing poetry in the kinds of physical and emotional turmoil that we and our bodies often experience," he said. "In that sense she draws forward a direct cord from Whitman and Dickinson through Plath and Sexton, among others. It's hard to do that without falling victim to sentimentality or self-importance, but she reminds us that it's possible and important."

Olds' visit next week promises to be an engaging event for the campus. She has been an important part of the curriculum of classes this semester.

"Part of our business in the poetry workshop is locating our own work in the landscape of contemporary poetry, and maybe no poet rejuvenates the sometimes hackneyed world of confessional poetry like Sharon Olds," Dodd said.

But beyond the classroom and workshop dynamic, the English faculty suggests the wider implications of a visit like Olds'.

"Literature is one of the main ways a society discovers and articulates meaning, and when we go to readings we are participating in that discovery," Dr. Dan Butterworth, chair of the English department said. "At a university we are keenly interested in who we are, what it means to be human, what it means to be living in our historical moment. It's our imperative as members of a learning community to promote our understanding of ourselves, each other, and the world, as well as to establish the sort of connectedness that the poetry of someone like Sharon Olds explores."

Sharon Olds will be reading in the Cataldo Globe Room next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m