Faculty, staff, and students united on the uphill lawn of the Elaine Langone Center on April 19 to listen to members of the University community present their poetry for Poem in Your Pocket Day. The reading was hosted by the Stadler Center for Poetry and is an initiative of the Academy of American Poets.

The reading began with a greeting from Chet’la Sebree, a Stadler Fellow in the second year of her fellowship. Sebree introduced the first reader, Daniel Barnum-Swett ’17. As with all the readers who followed, Barnum explained the inspiration for his poem before reading. His poem, “Half Asleep in the Holland Tunnel,” was inspired by his time spent in New York City. Each of the next 11 presenters described the inspirations behind their individual poems.

For example, Lydia Brents’ ’16 poem, “The Bitter Middle,” was about her experience in her long-distance relationship. Professor of English Paula Closson Buck contemplated the Iraq War in her 2003 poem, “November Consolation,” while Iris Rifkin-Gainer touched on the beautiful dusk sky in her poem, “The Blue at Dusk.” 

“It was really inspiring how people from so many different departments and parts of our community came forward to read. I really hope as a school we continue to show support and provide platforms for our community to come together and share our work with each other,” Emma Holt ’16 said. 

“We were lucky to have such a nice day to do the poetry reading because the sunny weather and cool breeze added a poetic element to the whole event. Sitting outside in the warm sunlight, listening to poetry read aloud was just a nice way to spend the late morning and early afternoon,” Caroline Schaeffer ’16 said.