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Poetry Has Power To Unlock Emotions

April 13, 2008

By Penelope M. Carrington

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Nearly a year ago, poet Nikki Giovanni electrified mourners at a memorial ceremony for victims at Virginia Tech with an emotional poem that brought attendees to their feet with a spontaneous cheer of solidarity and hope.

"We are Virginia Tech," Giovanni began.

"We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning."

"We are Virginia Tech."

"We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again."

"We are Virginia Tech."

Poetry, a simple communication tool developed for a preliterate society, has evolved in form over the centuries. But as the first anniversary of the April 16 massacre at Tech approaches, Giovanni and other poets said poems remain a powerful medium for crystallizing what the heart shelters. In moments tragic and blissful, poetry can be a beacon of hope or a catalyst for healing and change. Coincidentally, the power of verse is being recognized during this, National Poetry Month.

"There has never been a time of great joy or great sadness when we didn't turn to poetry," said Giovanni in a recent interview at Virginia Tech. "On 9/11, people were posting poems on the Internet, but people were also writing poems out and posting them in Lower Manhattan. Even here at Virginia Tech, on April 16, 2007, people were posting poetry."

Each declaration in the Virginia Tech English professor's chant poem served as salve and rallying cry for the Hokie community, reeling a day after student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on campus before taking his own life. Giovanni's poem reverberated well beyond the Blacksburg campus that was embraced by the world in the aftermath of the tragedy — in part because of the strong sense of community illuminated by Giovanni's words.

"While it is not her best writing - and is much more powerful to watch than just to listen to, because its power was so amplified by the reaction of the audience - it may well be her finest moment as a poet," wrote Pennsylvania poet Ron Silliman on Poets.org, the Academy of American Poets' Web site. "In just 90 seconds, she provided a larger context for suffering and a sense of belonging to every person in that building."

Giovanni, one of Tech's 14 "university distinguished professors," said she was "very fortunate" to be able to give voice to what many were feeling - and sharing.

"Poetry gives voice to our hearts, and I think that people turn to their hearts at times of great joy or great sadness. It's why we read poems at weddings. Divorces would probably be a lot less acrimonious if we all had to choose a poem to read there," she said with a laugh.

"But poems are not always uplifting. Sometimes what makes you feel better is that you're able to get the anger out. What makes poetry work for most of us most of the time is simply that we can give voice to those feelings.

"Poetry says, 'Yes, baby. You can say it.'"

Virginia Poet Laureate Carolyn KreiterForonda agreed.

"Generally, poetry has that crystal moment — that moment when a message becomes clear to us — when we begin to see something in a new way," said Kreiter-Foronda, hours before reading selections of her poems at Virginia Tech recently.

"Poetry speaks metaphorically to us. Poetry speaks symbolically to us. And if we're talking, for example, about stones, we can move from the stone of Mecca . . . to the stones that lie in a cemetery. Then we can move to the stones that may inhabit someone's breast with breast cancer. All of these symbols and suggestions that we put forth are going to speak to someone."

It's one of the reasons Kreiter-Foronda, who speaks at schools of all levels across the state, is a passionate advocate of teaching poetry in schools. Poetry, she said, gives students a "chance to express themselves and learn how important it is to distill [their] emotions."

Just as Giovanni did on April 17, Kreiter-Foronda said.

"We are all people in this country, and when we have poets who are capable of bringing us together at a public event and making us feel deeply about what has just transpired, then we are placing language where it belongs: right at the core," she said.

Deep within that is an oral tradition, Giovanni said.

"You look at the arts. It's all about what we're saying," Giovanni said. "That doesn't mean art says the people are wonderful when the people aren't. Art doesn't try to excuse . . . If you're beating your wife, there's no spin to that. You're a terrible person and somebody needs to call you out. Poetry's not going to solve that. But poetry is going to give voice to that woman or her child . . . and find a way to make it better. Not 'it' as in 'Daddy beats mommy,' but 'it' as in 'How do I conduct my life differently?"

Contact Penelope M. Carrington at (804) 649-6027 or pcarrington@timesdispatch.com.