As Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate of the United States, once notably said, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
And, while she did not attend the seventh annual Poetry and Barbecue event hosted by the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation last Sunday afternoon, she could easily have been referring to the opinions of the enthusiasts at the southern-style poetry gathering.
The setting was reminiscent of the days when Laura (Riding) Jackson would create prose in the Florida cracker-style house she lived in for nearly 50 years and which now sits on the grounds of the Environmental Learning Center. The home’s preservation inspired the formation of the foundation, which focuses on the proliferation of poetry and the written word through Teen and Adult Writing Workshops.
“We want kids to be comfortable and fluent in long form. Not Twitter, not 140 characters, but to be fluent and to like words, the descriptive power of words and their evocative power,” explained board member Marie Stiefel.
Sean Sexton, event organizer and Indian River County Poet Laureate, explained that while last year’s “Three Daughters of Eve” theme centered on female poets, this year’s “Madam, I’m Adam: The Male Dilemma” was focused on a trio of manly bards – award-winning authors Brian Turner, Kenneth Hart and Tony Hoagland.
“I thought last year was going to be the year of the woman; that women were going to be lifted up,” said Sexton. “I had an overwhelming sense that we needed to cover the male thing this year. The two things didn’t come together at the same time, but they did wind up influencing one another in the end.”
To kick off the day, the microphone was turned over to teen and adult workshop participants, providing an outlet where even unknown writers could profoundly touch published professionals.
Rick Smidley, a construction worker by trade, was visibly nervous before reading some of his work, sharing with the crowd, “I’ve never talked to more than three people in my whole life.”
Afterward, Turner was overheard saying, “This may be the best reading of the day.”
The three featured poets offered the audience views of the world from different perspectives, but beforehand couldn’t resist “roasting” Sexton a little bit.
“If Mr. Rogers had married Roy Rogers in a ceremony conducted by Clint Eastwood and had lived in a house dedicated to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you might have a Sean Sexton come out of that,” quipped Hoagland, as the crowd roared with laughter.
“He wears this dirty, battered cowboy hat. If you are a student of Carl Jung, you would know it is a manifestation of a kind of Pan figure or earth god. It indicates no desire to master the world but to embody it and bring other people into its wealth and beauty.”
Guests later mulled over the spoken word, listened to bluegrass and enjoyed barbecue and beer in the shade of the pole barn.
“The house is an iconic center for what we’re doing, but it’s really in the hearts of the Marie Stiefels and the Charlotte Terrys of the world,” said Sexton, noting that it takes the support of like-minded people to grow and sustain the foundation’s efforts.
Sharing his plans for next year, Sexton added, “Current events come to bear on us more than we like to admit. I found it necessary to sample some ethnic voices given the nature of recent events. The title of next year’s theme is Beyond Water and Walls.”
