Tri-County Community College hosts poetry reading
“Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.” – Carl Sandburg
Peachtree – The Tri-County Community College hosted its third annual Poetry Reading on April 6 inside the dramatically dimmed McSwain Auditorium.
Students and faculty gathered to hear the winners of this year’s contest read their work. Lee Ann Reynolds – dean of humanities, social science and public service technologies, opened the event with a quote from Joy Harjo: “When I began to listen to poetry/it’s when I began to listen to the stones/ and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say/and I began to listen to others.”
She explained: “We live in a very divisive world right now, but poetry is something that can connect us all at the human soul level, which is very beautiful.”
The auditorium, hushed from her words erupted into applause as she called Kathy Temple from the English faculty and retired faculty member Susan Moffitt to the stage to assist with the presentation of certificates.
Elsa Holland won first place for her poem “Poets,” where she explores the process of poetry for her. “These words grow and grow and grow/And when they are done growing/Plump and ripe/I pluck their fruits/And then I write.”
Some students chose to perform other poets’ work for extra credit in their coursework. Jacob Christiansen, a TCCC senior, was as surprised as anyone at his participation in the event.
“I used to hate poetry,” he said, “until Mr. [Caesar] Campana [his former teacher] believed in me.”
Campana once asked him, “Jacob, what do you want to be?” to which he answered, “An engineer.” Christiansen said, “He told me that if engineering didn’t work out, I could always be an English major. He helped me discover my love for English.”
Another performer, senior Trina Seabolt, chose to read Anne Bradstreet’s “To my dear and loving husband.” Seabolt said she identified with the lines, “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever/That when we live no more, we may live ever.”
Seabolt said her husband has been very supportive of her education. She liked the idea of loving so fiercely in life, that it may spill over and continue after death.
Reynolds said the contest enticed 19 entrants this year and was open to any student in any discipline. The English department faculty judged the entries blindly.
“There were no restrictions on topic or language,” she said. “We rated them holistically on a scale from 1-5.5 listening for form, function and voice.”