Writing has the potential to empower both readers and writers. The process of creating a personal piece can bring old and new memories to rest, just as they did for BYU professor Lance Larsen.
Edgar Allen Poe, like the poets before and after him, used poetry as a means of expression, relying on colorful word choices and emotionally charged verbiage to convey meaning. Along a similar vein, poetry has been a personal and almost sacred means of expression for BYU English Professor Lance Larsen (Poetry, American Literature). In his English Reading Series lecture, Larsen shared a handful of personal pieces, showing how poetry can elevate life’s mundane—and even difficult—experiences.
Personal Pantoums
The pieces Larsen shared blended fact and fiction to portray the emotions and thoughts associated with both mundane and memorable experiences in his life. “The title of this collection, Making a Kingdom of It, is intended to celebrate the everyday,” he explained. “And, to give us counsel about how to transform everyday experience that might otherwise be something to complain about.”
He shared poems about the death of loved ones, tragic accidents, and ordinary moments sitting on his porch. Many of these poems, he explained, were written as a pantoum—a Malaysian poetry style that requires the author to follow a specific format to ensure every line in the piece is repeated twice.
“What I like about pantoums is when lines from the first stanzas come back in, they’re always a surprise,” Larsen said. “Even if you’ve written them yourself, you’re not exactly sure how they’re going to bump up against the lines from the previous stanza.”
Making the Personal Universal
Poetry has helped Larsen navigate and process significant personal topics, including the death of his parents: “I don’t know that poetry is therapeutic, exactly, but it’s a way of taking life by the horns,” he explained. He continued, describing each poem as “an artifact that you can look at and change.”
An example of this came from a poem titled “And Also I Ran,” which recounts his experience as a teenager visiting his best friend who had been paralyzed in a car accident. After leaving the hospital, Larsen recalled feeling the sudden urge to run. “When I found some language that would bring those [ideas] together and somehow do justice to an adult perspective and a fifteen-year-old perspective, I found my way to this poem.”
Readers may interpret Larsen’s poetry differently than he intended, basing their understandings on their own personal experiences. However, Larsen believes that poetry’s ability to spur unique interpretations is a sign of good writing. “Language is an imperfect instrument. . . . It’s a broken, imperfect thing,” he said. “And I think that’s a good thing.”
Check out the upcoming speakers for the English Reading Series here.