Post by gemmala116 on May 30, 2013 22:16:30 GMT -5
Despite growing up in the rural and secluded Hudson Valley, Gregory Orr led anything but a normal life. At age 12, Orr accidentally killed his younger brother in a hunting accident-an event that his family chose to never speak of. This tragedy was immediately followed by the death of his mother, and his father’s addiction to amphetamines. Orr is able to find peace among these three tragic events, as well as bringing peace to his readers, by using his poetry “as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive”.
Contributing to his one-of-a-kind upbringing was Orr’s near death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Haiti. This brush with death drew him closer towards a theme within his earlier works, contributing to the exigency with which his poems seek transformation. This sense of urgency is obvious with his stylistic choice to write mainly in short, personal lyric. In praising Orr’s stylistic choices, Ted Genoways writes: "Sure, the trappings of modern life appear at the edges of these poems, but their focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent—not God, but the beloved—that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time. It's an experience usually reserved for reading the ancients, and clearly that was partly Orr's inspiration."
This is what makes Orr truly an amazing poet; he provides emotional relief for his readers using his own extremely personal tragedies as a way of helping the reader recognize the universality of their emotions. In a sense, Orr makes them feel less alone. At times we will all “choose loss, the one sure song”. We will all “pray we’ll grow old” next to the person we love. And hopefully we will all come to know that there is “no meaning but what we find here. No purpose but what we make”.
Orr teaches us to reach deeper inside our soul to not just feel the emotion, but to understand it. His poetry is a tribute to his ability to expand his readers’ capability to effectively cope with the curve balls life throws at us.
It is an honor to be able to present Mr. Gregory Orr as this year’s visiting poet. Please join me in welcoming him to the stage.
Contributing to his one-of-a-kind upbringing was Orr’s near death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Haiti. This brush with death drew him closer towards a theme within his earlier works, contributing to the exigency with which his poems seek transformation. This sense of urgency is obvious with his stylistic choice to write mainly in short, personal lyric. In praising Orr’s stylistic choices, Ted Genoways writes: "Sure, the trappings of modern life appear at the edges of these poems, but their focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent—not God, but the beloved—that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time. It's an experience usually reserved for reading the ancients, and clearly that was partly Orr's inspiration."
This is what makes Orr truly an amazing poet; he provides emotional relief for his readers using his own extremely personal tragedies as a way of helping the reader recognize the universality of their emotions. In a sense, Orr makes them feel less alone. At times we will all “choose loss, the one sure song”. We will all “pray we’ll grow old” next to the person we love. And hopefully we will all come to know that there is “no meaning but what we find here. No purpose but what we make”.
Orr teaches us to reach deeper inside our soul to not just feel the emotion, but to understand it. His poetry is a tribute to his ability to expand his readers’ capability to effectively cope with the curve balls life throws at us.
It is an honor to be able to present Mr. Gregory Orr as this year’s visiting poet. Please join me in welcoming him to the stage.