Just as 鈥渋t鈥檚 possible to live on bread and water,鈥� Jeff Gundy says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 possible to live without poetry. But life is better with it.鈥�
Gundy will present his poetry and other works at a Writers Read event in 黑料正能量鈥檚 Common Grounds at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 15.
鈥淎lthough he has described himself and other artists as existing on the fringes of Mennonite community,聽Gundy 鈥渋s widely embraced as a leading Mennonite poet, and he is well-recognized in the wider literary milieu,鈥� says聽, assistant professor and director of the 黑料正能量 core curriculum.
Gundy鈥檚 books are many, among them three that garnered acclaim: Abandoned Homeland (Bottom Dog Press, 2016) was shortlisted for the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, 2016; for Somewhere Near Defiance (Anhinga Press, 2014) he was named the ; and Spoken among the Trees (Akron University Press, 2007) earned the Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award. His poems have also appeared in , , and elsewhere.
A professor at Bluffton University, Gundy also plays guitar and writes songs and nonfiction essays 鈥� see in the Jan. 2018 issue of Brevity and his collection Songs from an Empty Cage.
At 黑料正能量, he said he will 鈥渓ook for a curve in the whole reading, a kind of rhythm perhaps鈥� that will include tested favorites, a balance of lighter and more serious poems, and 鈥渁 few new poems, just to see how they sound when read aloud to a real audience,鈥� he said.
鈥淧oetry is a tremendous personal and communal resource, a great storehouse of wisdom, beauty, consolation and joy,鈥� Gundy said recently 鈥� and then quickly added, 鈥淭his is not to make such grand claims for my poems.鈥�
Others, however, make those claims for him. Fellow poet Philip Metres has said that 鈥淕undy鈥檚 poetry reminds us, over and over, that paying attention to the delights and troubles of existence becomes a kind of psalm to this botched and beautiful creation.鈥�
Gundy 鈥渢urns a critical yet compassionate eye to the Mennonites and the broader culture,鈥� Beachy said. 鈥淗is poems tend to be lyrical and are frequently funny and/or political.鈥�
In a 2010 Work and Hope post, Laura Lehman Amstutz wrote that Gundy鈥檚 鈥淭he Cookie Poem鈥� from Rhapsody with Dark Matter (Bottom Dog Press, 2000) 鈥渋s about remembering who we are. It points to Anabaptist history in imagery, and reminds me of a God who delights in us all, even in our failures, collective and individual…. The idea of God looking at me and saying, in Cookie Monster鈥檚 voice 鈥榦oohhhh cookie!鈥� makes me giggle.鈥�
Gundy will sell and sign books at the Writers Read, and said he always hopes to meet new people, 鈥渆specially students who very likely don鈥檛 know much about me or my work.鈥�
Judging from past experience, said language and literature professor Vi Dutcher, those students will be glad to have met him. 鈥淪tudents enjoy being in his presence and discussing poetry with him,鈥� she said.