Paula Meehan

I have always loved hearing accents. To me, it is a real treat when a writer has an accent. Today, the visiting writer was Paula Meehan. She had a beautiful Irish accent. It was so beautiful and peaceful that it nearly put me to sleep. Meehan used that accent to draw people into her message. She had some interesting things to say today.

Meehan’s favorite poet is Osip Mandelstam. The way that she talked proved to me that he was an influence in her poetry. I looked him for a little background on the type of poetry that he wrote. Mandelstam wrote poetry about how bad things were in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s hand. That led to one of Meehan’s points. She said that poems are written from protest. I think that is very true. A heavy percent of poetry is written about the evils and injustice of the world. Sometimes, those poems are heard something gets done about the malice. Other times, it takes years before something is done. Either way, poets act brave when they rise and take a stand with their work. Meehan also said that poetry is an eye-witness to the world. That is also true. Some of the world’s history can be traced back and displayed through poems. I feel that sometimes I could learn more from history from art than a textbook.

From this lecture, I learned some useful tips for my own writing. Meehan informed the audience that to write another language in English is not really a good thing. The English language eats up and kills the original words. I agree with her on that point. Many things get lost in translation and when that happens, the beauty of the original message vanishes along with the native tongue that it was written in. Meehan also said that exercises can help with writing poems. I plan to take that one to heart the next time I write another poem for class. Maybe I might grow and expand my technique. The last piece of key advice Meehan gave was that rhetoric is not poetry. I can see why she says that. Nobody wants to read poetry that is dry and dull. Being too professional kills the creativity and freedom in the author’s words. Rhetoric in a sense would do that. So, it is best to leave it out.

Overall, Meehan’s visit was a nice treat. I even learned a new today word: dolpa. That means a demon in the imagination. That seems to describe my mind with my own ideas. I really did like Meehan’s visit to the campus.