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Terman will read poetry featured on Writer’s Almanac at open mic

November 14, 2016

terman poetry bookHearing someone read your poetry on National Public Radio is a satisfying experience. Just ask Clarion University English professor Philip Terman, Ph.D., who has had the honor four times when Garrison Keillor read his poems on the Writer's Almanac, an NPR show that highlights literary history and ends with Keillor reading a poem, typically from a modern poet.

Keillor most recently read one of Terman's poems called "Some Days" Oct. 24. Terman will be the featured poet at Tobeco Literary Arts Journal's open mic from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at Michelle's Café on Main Street in Clarion where you can hear selections like "Some Days."

"Some days you have to turn off the news
and listen to the bird or truck
or the neighbor screaming out her life," the poem opens.

The poem speaks to the pace of life and the need to be unplugged. Perhaps, Keillor chose it because of the current political climate, Terman said.

"You have to close all the books and open
all the windows so that whatever swirls
inside can leave and whatever flutters
against the glass can enter. Some days
you have to unplug the phone and step
out to the porch and rock all afternoon
and allow the sun to tell you what to do," the poem continues.

Terman said the poem is older and is from his most recent collection of poems titled "Our Portion: New and Selected Poems," which was published in 2015. A copy of "Our Portion" was given to the Writer's Almanac by his publisher last year.

"It's nice that he (Keillor) picked an old poem," Terman said. "The fact that it still has some relevance is gratifying."

Because of the exposure on NPR, Terman said he receives encouraging emails from people he doesn't know including one from a high school teacher who used the poem to teach his class. The class had to write poems in the same style as "Some Days." Another person turned this particular poem into a video on YouTube.

"I think Garrison Keillor has actually turned a lot of people onto poetry," Terman said.

Having more exposure to poetry helps people develop an appreciation for it, he explained.

He also received word that a writer in Aleppo, Syria, Saleh Razzouk, translated a collection of his poems into Arabic.

"You get the feeling the poem is really complete when it's communicated to someone else," Terman said.

The other poems that have been read on the Writer's Almanac include "The Summer You Read Proust," "Pinochle," and "Walking to Jerusalem."

Terman said he writes every day and usually knows when a poem is finished.

"You just have to develop an instinct for it," he said. "You feel a satisfaction that it's finished."

"The whole day has to lie ahead of you
like railroad tracks that drift off into gravel.
Some days you have to walk down the wooden
staircase through the evening fog to the river,
where the peach roses are closing,
sit on the grassy bank and wait for the two geese."

 

Last Updated 1/11/21