Vol. 18, No. 20	Feb. 18, 1999

Poet to discuss Native American storytelling in Lewes

Poet James Keegan, a member of the English faculty of the UD Parallel Program, will present "Once Upon a Time...A Look at Native American Storytelling" on Friday, Feb. 19, as part of the University of Delaware's 14th annual Land and Sea Lecture Series. The free, public lecture will take place at 10 a.m. in Lewes and again at 2 p.m. in Seaford. The talk in Lewes will be held at the Virden Center, 700 Pilottown Rd., on the UD Hugh R. Sharp Campus. The Seaford talk will be held in the auditorium of the Methodist Manor House, 1001 Middleford Rd.

Keegan will discuss the Native American oral tradition of transmitting the culture and identity of the tribal community through storytellers. The lecture explores the storytelling figure in works by contemporary Native American artists and examines the relationship of the storyteller to modern questions of identity and community.

Keegan was recently awarded the 1999 Delaware State Arts Council Experienced Fellowship, a $5,000 grant given in recognition of his contribution to the arts community in Delaware as expressed through his poetry. Keegan offered his feelings about receiving the award while speaking on a local radio station last fall.

At that time he said, "The application process, choosing what poems you want to put in is interesting. You are forced to look at your work, and see what comes of a piece."

Keegan said that besides receiving the financial compensation that goes with the award, the main reason for applying is to become part of the arts community in Delaware, and to get to know other artists and interact with them.

This interaction is important, he said, because much of the work involved in creating poetry is done in isolation, and that through the application process, your work is being recognized by others in the arts community.

"You want a forum for it, because you do it so much in isolation," Keegan said. "The encouragement factor is quite important."

Much of Keegan's poetry deals with family relationships, centering on themes like fatherhood, and the importance of the relationship between himself and his son.

One of the poems that Keegan read on the air during his interview, "A Cricket for Show and Tell," deals with an event that took place years ago, when his son wanted to capture a cricket hiding behind a laundry bin, and take it to school for show and tell.

Through the course of the poem, Keegan describes the preparations for snagging the creature, and his son's reaction to the event, including feelings that maybe it would not be a bad idea to set the cricket free.

"It was just one of the glorious things about being a parent," Keegan said. "It's one of those startling moments where you begin thinking about things that are much larger than the apparently routine event that has made you aware of those things."

These moments, Keegan said, demonstrate that seemingly small events that occur in the parent-child relationship often lead to larger questions that perhaps are unanswerable.

Keegan said he seeks to incorporate the element of surprise in his poetry, and is open to the possibility of the poem going somewhere very different from where he originally intended.

"Robert Frost said that the writer has to find a surprise in the poem," Keegan said. "Frost also said that if there is no surprise for the writer, there is no surprise for the reader."

The music of poetry also intrigues Keegan.

"In poetry, sound is so important," he said. "We are taught so much now to read poetry on the page, and not to read it aloud-not to enjoy the sounds of the poetry."

While there are many similarities between writing prose and poetry, Keegan noted that there are some key differences in both the processes and the results.

The difference between academic writing and poetry, Keegan said, is that academic writing can be a little more defined and limited, with clearer boundaries, something that is not always the case with poetry.

"It takes a long time with a poem, putting it down, then coming back to it, say a month later, and hoping it will open up in some way," he said. "It does not always happen, and it seems a lot more risky a proposition for me in some ways."

While recognizing that there are different kinds of poets, with varied themes and issues to present, Keegan said that there are issues and themes that are important to the reader as well.

"I think it is a matter of taste, what we choose to read, but I also think that poetry demands a struggle to some degree."

As for the narrative element within his poetry, Keegan credits this to his relationship with his father.

"I grew up listening to him tell stories in a marvelous way," Keegan said. "He has a tin ear, and couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag, but he is a marvelous storyteller."

Keegan, who began writing poetry during his college years at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts, took some time off from writing and teaching, but has taken up both again, and eventually plans to publish a collection of his poems.

-Jerry Rhodes