The Arts Club at Home: So You Say You Hate Poetry

When did it start? In elementary school when the teacher made you memorize and recite? In high school when stiff Medieval or Romantic language seemed impossible to decipher? It doesn’t have to be this way. Merrill Leffler will convince you that poetry is full of gasps and belly laughs as well as sudden tears.

In a short talk, Merrill will take you from “easy” poems written in straightforward sentences, to poems considered “harder” due to their language and form. Along the way, Merrill will share his deep love of poetry and his experience as a teacher of literature at the University of Maryland and the U.S. Naval Academy and the publisher of Dryad Press. Come explore the adventure that is poetry and learn what you may have been missing. Questions and comments will be invited and encouraged.

Bio for Merrill:

Merrill is nationally known as both a poet and as the publisher of Dryad Press.  Originally a NASA engineer, Merrill left that career to pursue poetry at Oxford University, subsequently teaching at the University of Maryland and the U.S. Naval Academy. Merrill’s books include Partly Pandemonium, Partly Love; Take Hold, and Mark the Music. As a founder of Dryad Press, Merrill was an early publisher of Pulitzer Prize winner James Wright, among other distinguished authors. In addition, he was a founder of The Writer’s Center, which has served Washington area writers for over forty years. More recently, Merrill translated the poetry of Moshe Dor from the original Hebrew and served as Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, Maryland.

This is a live-stream event requiring to have the Zoom application installed on your computer. Free download at https://zoom.us/support/download