On Monday, Oct. 7, critically-acclaimed poet Iain Haley Pollock visited campus to read from his work and give an informative talk on his experiences, successes, and stylistic choices as a writer.
The son of Classics and Africana Studies Professor Shelley Haley, Pollock shared his personal experiences with students, friends, family, and fellow poets in the audience as he read from
Ghost, Like a Place
, his second published collection of poetry.
His presence on campus was thanks to the hard work and dedication of Professor of Poetry Naomi Guttman, who arranged a personal presentation of Pollock’s poetry for her Poetry Workshop class before his evening reading in Dwight Lounge. In both his reading and the classroom Q&A, Pollock discussed his elements of craft and the process of writing.
Nominated for the NAACP Image Award,
Ghost, Like a Place
, expresses the convoluted experience of fatherhood and masculinity and the multidimensional nature of interracial conflicts and social injustices. Pollock elaborated on the presence of his own self and his personal experiences within the characters in his poetry — specifically as a father and a mixed-race child — stating that his works are often depictions of his own experiences but with a touch of fictitious elements.
When reading “Whatever Wilderness Contained There” to the audience, Pollock discussed the role of repetition and syntax in establishing the poem’s atmosphere. Reliving an intense conflict with a train conductor over the safety of his wife, Pollock explained how he utilized the frequent repetition of lines like “She is pregnant, she is not standing” in the narrator’s dialogue with the conductor to show the persistence and disorientation of the character as he protects his wife’s well being. Continually returning to this and other descriptive lines, Pollock discussed how his poem reflects the sort of trance state through which he experienced this conflict in person. He also spoke on how the mixing and matching of the poem’s repeated lines manifests the main character’s anger and fortitude towards the impending removal of his pregnant wife. Continually questioning “Is this rational?,” Pollock discussed how he integrated the feelings of confusion, haziness, and masculine aggravation by using broken syntax and repeated displays of dominance.
Continuing to unpack his own creative process for the class, Pollock read aloud “California Penal Code 484,” a poem about his personal experience with the injustices of race-based policing and the complexities of his experience coming from a mixed-race background. The poem starts with the introduction of the narrator and his friends’ habit of “borrowing” a bicycle from its unwitting owner. Eventually, his friend Sherod is caught, taken into custody for stealing, and threatened with juvie. Then, the narrator’s “white savior” father comes into play, getting his son’s friend out of jail and safely back into his everyday life.
Discussing the poem, Pollock talked about his struggle with black identity and the effects of having a white father. Despite recognizing the problematic nature of his father’s actions as a “white savior,” Pollock showed his multidimensional understanding of the experience, acknowledging that his friend would not have made it out of that situation without the help of the intervening father.
Ending with a Q&A, Pollock responded to various inquiries with lighthearted charm and creative encouragement. When asked about his writing process, he discussed the significance of his own feelings, experiences, and perspectives within his writing. Pollock said that his creative process is based off of his memories told through a fictitious lens, and that fostering creativity can be a transformative experience when done with your own experiences.
Promoting a consideration of the importance of syntax, he ended his talk with a discussion of what makes a good poem: according to Pollock, a good poem is one that makes you feel. Preferring “the heart to the head,” he encouraged students to consider what poetry means to them and what it makes them feel, rather than trying to create a work “worthy” of consideration.
