This last Friday of April comes at the end of National Poetry Month and the beginning of National Mental Health Awareness Month. So, it's a fitting time to feature the work of late Flagstaff poet, Jim Simmerman. Thirteen years ago, he took his own life after decades of mental and physical illness, afflictions he often alluded to in his poems, along with nature, dogs and the passage of time. His love for poetry lives on, however, in the annual Jim Simmerman Poetry Prize for Young Poets in the Flagstaff Unified School District...submissions are now underway. In this week's Poetry Friday segment, James Jay, literary executor for Simmerman's estate, shares his late friend's poetry and some thoughts on his legacy.
James Jay:
Jim Simmerman was a Regents Professor and acclaimed poet that lived here in Flagstaff, Arizona for years and years, and often times volunteered at the high schools and encouraged folks to write poetry at multiple age groups and levels.
As far as the type of poetry that he wrote, it was always meticulous to the detail which matched his personality for folks that knew him. He was a very tight, precise poet, but at the same time he’d also mix a certain amount of vulnerability into his poetry that often times wouldn’t come through in his regular life. But there would be something inside his poetry that you would get to see a little bit more of the person himself after it had been finely wrought and crafted. So, there’s a certain amount of control also with those lines, but there was also a certain amount of approachability and vulnerability in his poetry, as well.
The Jim Simmerman Poetry Prize is in its 13th year, and it was established after his death in order to carry on the tradition of poetry and encouraging young folks to get involved in writing and enriching their lives with the written word. The only requirement is that the student must be attending school in Flagstaff. We get all sorts of folks; we get a range from what would be shorter, almost Haiku-like poems, to long, expansive, more narrative poetry. It’s an absolute blast!
So, one of the things with Jim Simmerman is he loved dogs, animals. If he wasn’t writing about dogs, they weren’t far from his mind. That was key to him. I think there’s something about that idea of trying to find that compassion, that relationship in simple things, but also being in that moment, being present. And there’s something about animals, about dogs, how they can do that for us: You had a bad day for whatever reason, and coming home to the dog can put that all back together for you. Yeah.
Just to Love the Dog, by Jim Simmerman
Just to love the clock again.
Just to love the chair
that rocks a little
when you rock a little
sitting in the living room
you’re living in
alone again.
Just to love your share
of channels that stay up all night:
the Dream Away plan, the news
that hasn’t changed
since yesterday,
the late late show
in which the dead arise
and walk and die again,
the forecast high in Gila Bend.
Just to love the telephone
for how it hunkers down
and doesn’t ring
or dial or hope or fret
about itself. Just
to love the dog again”
the tongue that licks
the hand, the paw
that shakes, the ears
that prick like someone’s
coming back.
Poetry Friday is produced by KNAU's Gillian Ferris. If you have an idea for a segment, drop her an email at Gillian.Ferris@nau.edu
