A Night of Poetry: de la Paz & Scrimgeour

By:  Susannah Geary

March 29th,  marked another full house for the English departments Writers Series. This time we had visiting poet Oliver de la Paz along with our own J.D Scrimgeour, read their poems. Professor Kevin Carey introduced the reading and first up was Professor Scrimgeour, who joked that his selection of poems seemed to have the theme of complaining about poetry. In one poem he compared words to wine and continued to speak of the doubt that sometimes comes with writing poetry. One of his poems was about a box of letters, and all the feelings that those old memories and letters bring up and how you feel now.  He also read  a poem called “Cemetery Poem” which explores all the cemetery poems that have come before, calling out humorous aspects of this staple of poetry.

January O’Neil gave a warm welcome to Oliver de la Paz. The first few poems were political and written as a series of letters addressed to an empire. He had written these poems between 2007 and 2013. One of the poems was about a government regulated wall, separating people. The poem proved relevant to our times today despite being published in 2008. He read about growing up in his small town in Oregon and how one day he’d like to bring his children back there. De la Paz read out experts of his poem "Autism Screening Questionnaire-Speech and Language Delay". He explained how this poem was written for him and for parents who are neurotypical, and now have children who are on the Autism Spectrum, as he has two sons on the spectrum. He uses real questions from the questionnaire parents have to take when beginning the tests for a diagnosis. The answers are his unique experiences with his family and how they communicate which is so much in-depth and meaningful than what can be said in a simple questionnaire.

Thank you to the English department for another great writers series event.