Poets Forche and May at CPL for Poetry Day

Poets Carolyn Forché and Jamaal May will be at Harold Washington Library Center for Poetry Day on Thursday, October 16. Given their contrasting styles, it should make for a stimulating, even revelatory evening.

Both poets were both born in Michigan, with May staying in the Detroit area and Forché trotting the globe before settling near Washington, D.C.  While Forché is the more overtly political of the two, they both share an interest in the deeply personal. They also share certain motifs: birds, graves, maps, to name a few.

Forché has a decidedly oblique style: you may read a piece twice or so before you realize she's talking about the Holocaust or Chernobyl. She has a deep attachment to the natural world, but she is always dealing with the human condition, usually in the wake of catastrophe. This is partly because of when and where she has been in the world and also her fascination with her Slovak heritage (a relative was a survivor of a Nazi POW camp). Forché's chapbook The Angel of History is in many ways the record of the trauma of the 20th century. It can be tough reading, but it's worth it.

In Blue Hour, Forché focuses more on the personal, referencing her son on several occasions. The end poem is a tour de force, as she proceeds alphabetically through time and space. Like memories, a Forché poem may not initially make sense as a whole, but usually there is at least one image of hallucinatory clarity that you can build your understanding on. Imagery is her great strength, but it is hard not to be moved, even if it doesn't hit you all at once.

May is more readily accessible. He deals in the here and now. You may not work as hard to understand what he's getting at, but May is just as powerful. That is not to say he is not artful, but you could think of him as Whitman to Forché's Dickinson. May uses trees in his poems almost as much as Forché uses fields, possibly indicating his identification with the Michigan woods as Forché identifies with the meadows of eastern Europe. May also deals more with his own feelings than Forché and while his canvas is not as grand as hers, it is more immediate and easier to follow. Forché gives you images to place together in a story, May gives you the story and some beguiling sketches. May's book of poems is called Hum.