Photo by Levana Lyu ‘21
Steve Roggenbuck opened his poetry reading by demonstrating solidarity with Hamilton students, explaining that he hails from Syracuse so “he is from around here.” Although he may be similar to Hamilton students geographically, Roggenbuck is like no other poet that we have ever seen. He calls his compilation of comedic and nonsensical short stories, as well as his YouTube videos and comical two-line poems, the work of a poet. As he describes his occupation to the crowd, Roggenbuck claims that to be a poet means to like “word stuff” and riddles. Most of his poems and stories are funny and represent the sense of humor of a college student, which obviously resonated with the group as they laugh along with him in the basement of Kirner-Johnson. Roggenbuck’s poems tend to include lots of jokes, as well as some serious information that promotes taking care of the planet as well as being true to oneself. His YouTube videos, which range in title from “make something beautiful before you are dead” and “I am Not Responsible for Anything The Moon Does” contain similar messages. They are made up of his ranting monologues as he walks around an open space, usually a park or forest, and speaks to the camera. He reflects on success, life, and taking care of the planet as it deteriorates in front of us, dropping references to animals and personifying plants in the process.
At his poetry reading, Roggenbuck showed the audience several of his videos and read poems from his two books,
Live My Life: Selected and New Poems
, 2008–15, and
Calculating How Big Of a Tip to Give is The Easiest Thing Ever, Shout Out to My Family & Friends
. From his book of selected poetry, Roggenbuck read several poems that consisted of only a title and one subsequent line. The audience roared with laughter once they realized that a grandiose title, such as
I Had a Dream a Turtle was Threatening Me Verbally
, was followed by only one line: “and that’s something that I hope never happens to me in real life.” Roggenbuck’s witty humor carries through his collection of short stories as well. He also read several of these for the Hamilton audience, receiving many laughs in response. Roggenbuck also combines his affinity for writing with his YouTube career by combining all of the comments he has received on the platform over the years into a long poem that pokes fun at the strange, confusing, and incredibly honest comments that viewers post.
On a more serious note, Roggenbuck read from his poem called
There’s no morning sky anywhere
, which is a poem that critiques the police system in America. In the poem, Roggenbuck compares the blue of police officers uniform to “the blue color of something that has been dead.” Due to recent controversial events that involve the police in America, this poem is very relevant and serves as a voice for those supposedly oppressed by the police. In another critique of society, Roggenbuck states how “humans are basically ants that got too much power” in a reflection on capitalism and how it negatively affects the human race and the planet. Roggenbuck ended the reading by describing how a “boost network” grows. He explained that you can give a boost to someone if you are an agent in the world who is creating change. When you boost someone, they can be at a higher level in life. Once you are at a higher level, you are more likely to give a boost to other people. Roggenbuck’s motto is to live life freely with a positive attitude, all while having fun and creating positive change. Roggenbuck’s reading was a pleasant mixture of comedy and deep reflection. The Hamilton community was lucky to see him perform.
