Richard Garcia shares poetry with GPC

by Jennifer Johnson
The Collegian
Issue date: 2/1/08

Award-winning poet Richard Garcia came to three GPC campuses Nov. 14-16 to read selections from three of his four nationally-published collections and work with GPC students in an intimate poetry workshop.

GPC's Humanities Department, Honors Student Association, and the Office of Student Life sponsored the poet's visit, which included readings on the Lawrenceville and Clarkston campuses, and a poetry workshop on Dunwoody campus.

Garcia's Clarkston campus audience on Nov. 15 mostly consisted of Anna Schachner, Dr. Rosemary Cox and Tim Tarkington's classes.

Before the evening reading, Garcia lounged on the plush seats on the second level of the College Center, where the reading took place. While Lawrenceville English professor and Honors Program coordinator Dr. Jeffrey Portnoy set up the massive fruit and cookie trays the 25 or 30 students and faculty took advantage of, Garcia chatted with students about prison-themed TV shows and movies, his wife, and his career.

Garcia was surprised when asked about his poem 'Paper', as he'd forgotten it had been published. Journalism major Vivian Giang told Garcia about analyzing the poem in Anna Schachner's creative writing class.

After an introduction by Portnoy, Garcia opened the reading by discussing the class's interpretation. "It was strange to me that the one thing that confused students was the most literal meaning," said Garcia.

Garcia's visit, his first to the state of Ga., was part of the Georgia Poetry Circuit, where collegiate faculty nominate and select a poet to give readings and workshops on different college campuses in two separate week-long periods, covering, Garcia said, five institutions per trip. Garcia noted that the circuit was "one of those things where you have to ask where you're at." But he was far from unhappy about the situation-"They give you big lunches and then take you out to dinner. Whatever happened to the starving poet?"

The not-so-starving poet read from three of his collections; 'The Flying Garcias', 'Rancho Notorious' and his latest release, 'The Persistence of Objects', discussing each poem before its reading. Garcia spoke of his mother, "the most morbid person I'd ever known," his dog Louie, and the fact that he often writes about chickens. He read the poem 'Chicken Head' from 'Rancho Notorious', about Jesus and a gangster, which one can find on the web-in Dutch. It is particularly popular with magazine editors and 6th graders, Garcia noted.

Garcia's website features the view from the window of his home office, the place he prefers to write when not composing with his students. Garcia was pleased, he said, to hear that attendee Rod Epps, a GPC journalism student, say the reading made writing poetry seem a little more accessible. "It made me like, 'okay, it's not this unachievable goal."

"That's what I want students to believe," said Garcia. "It's not about what you know, it's about what you discover."