Issue date: 3/31/05 Section: Aggielife

Stephen Sargent, a political science graduate and English doctoral candidate Jeff Stumpoperform at Rumours Tuesday night during MSC Literary Arts Committee´s ´Diversity in Spoken Word.´

Robert Frost once said, "Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat."

An increasing number of Aggies are doing just that by embracing the art of poetry and showcasing their work to the world. Whether from a young age or later in life, students have found poetry to be a useful mode of expression. They are unabashed poets, and they know it.

"I've always been writing," said sophomore general studies major Stefani Glick. "The first poem I wrote was in third grade; it was a religious poem. [The school] actually published it my fourth grade year in an anthology."

Glick said she is constantly writing down her thoughts and conveying her feelings.

"Most of my class notes have got poems scribbled in the margins," she said.

Junior English major Marc Brubaker did not discover poetry until his senior year of high school.

"It was a release for emotions and a way to express myself," he said. "I was expressing my feelings and thoughts on the world and on society. Originally, it was a release just to get it out on paper."

Converting a poem from the brain to paper is a process with as many methods as there are poets.

"I'll take something that I'm feeling and then write it down," Glick said. "Then I copy it over somewhere else and revise it as I go."

For Brubaker, a poem is born from a fragmented idea.

"I'll develop an idea of what I want the poem to be about, and I try to let it flow naturally as I write it," Brubaker said. "Then I throw it on a pile, and I don't touch it for about a week."

The poet can find his source of inspiration anywhere, whether it is in the works of other poets such as Robert Frost or Emily Dickenson or simply what's going on in his life.

"A lot of my inspiration comes from my Christian background," Brubaker said. "The other central part of my inspiration is music. Something will hit me from a song lyric or the melody of a song."

When it comes to getting readers exposed to their art, poets can utilize traditional methods such as the publishing books, but many are also exploring more contemporary means of public appeal. For Glick, the Internet has provided a venue for the display of her poetry.

Continued...

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