Dear Oregon Poets,
A Confession
I cannot imagine a world without poets and poetry, and I am sure you all feel the same. Some literary gurus claim that poetry preceded prose, and one can easily see how that could be. Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa was written during the 25th century BCE. I was as were so many of my peers exposed to poetry in school when forced to read long and rather dull, to our ears, narratives of the English poets. If anything was certain to inoculate me against being infected by poetry it was that experience. And so I became a Chemist! Possibly the worlds worst example, but nevertheless a technophile.
I did not become an admirer, lover, of poetry until one day on BBC TV I heard John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate, recite his work Myfanwy, and was instantly smitten. It was a love song aimed at a bicycle riding girl. Perhaps it was the fourth verse that hooked me: –
‘Trace me your wheel-tracks, you fortunate bicycle,
Out of the shopping and into the dark,
Back down the avenue, back to the potting shed,
Back to the house on the fringe of the park’
And over the next decades I randomly bought the collections of D.H. Lawrence, Rupert Brooke, Catullus, Baudelaire, Betjeman of course, and others. When I came to America my life was focused almost entirely on the sales and marketing of highly complex analytical instruments, and I forgot my books until I started traveling around the world for work and spent so much time waiting in airports, in hotels, and offices, that I started to write myself and I returned to poetry and found that America had poets too! Something all of you already knew but it was a revelation to me. It not so suddenly, but quite quickly, occurred to me that by golly if America has poets, then perhaps other countries must also have them. And so I found Pablo Neruda, and Peter Porter, Banjo Patterson and Barry Humphries. Everywhere poetry was alive and illuminating life, and death.
When I came to Oregon, once again working in the complexity of Hi-Technology, I found myself writing as much poetry as prose. In a curious turn of events I also found myself singing. Singing in my own cabaret style performances. I sang the songs of Jacques Brel, Randy Newman, Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann, Jake Thackray, and in between songs would read poetry, some of it my own. Such literary chemistry. To my own amazement I then published a book of poetry, short stories and vignettes, The Bob Sterry School of Burglary.
When I finally joined the Oregon Poetry Association it was only to enter the contests. At readings of Tom Hogan’s Milwaukie series I met Emmett Wheatfall. I asked him to read poetry in my shows. He did. As you probably all know he does not need a microphone and can hold, even mesmerize an audience. It was he who nominated me to join the board of our Association in 2022, or was it 2021? I now hold him affectionately responsible for my election to the board and now to President.
In the pandemic years the OPA has survived and continued to further its mission, which I take the liberty of noting here; –
- Build and sustain a diverse community of Oregon poets
- Provide Oregon poets opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from one another
- Further the appreciation of poetry throughout the state
- Raise awareness of Oregon poets.
As President I support these goals and will do my utmost to enable them. To do this I not only need the help of the elected board of the OPA, but all of you. The board can only do so much and without the assistance of friends and volunteers, we can only expect moderate successes.
Please welcome our board members: –
- Kate Ristau: Vice President
- Debra Elisa: Secretary
- Aaron Erhardt: Treasurer
- Juan Cervantes
- David Goodrum
- Corinne Hughes
- Sherri Levine
…and find your own way to becoming part of the wonderfully creative community of Oregon Poets. Do call me, write to me, express your ideas to me, my digital door is always open (you can use the form below).
Bob Sterry