The Poet’s Experience

On Jan. 14 at 7 pm, David Clowers will be the featured reader for the monthly Dickinson Poetry Series.

After receiving his BA in English and History from Kalamazoo College, and an MA in English from the University of Michigan, Clowers taught British and American literature at Drake University for three years. Switching fields, he got his law degree from the University of Chicago, and then proceeded to take a 30-year detour from literature into the practice of law. During this time, he occasionally tried to write, but soon discovered he had no talent for short fiction, novels took too long to finish, and – given his short attention span – all he could write was poetry.

For Clowers, poetry means sharing the poet’s experience, not just his or her feelings about that experience. In his view, a good poet pays attention to what is going on in the world around himself or herself, and then finds a metaphor that will allow him or her to perceive the relationships between an inner state and what is being observed outside.

Clowers is a member of the Unabridged poetry group, and his poems have received honorable mentions and awards in the Peninsula Pulse’s Hal Prize contest, and in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Triad contest. His second chapbook, “Doggysattva Love and Other Possible Illusions,” will come out in January 2015.

On the second Wednesday of every month, the Dickinson Poetry Series features a reading by a local or regional poet followed by an open mic and reception. The public is welcome, and admission is free. The UUF is located at 10341 Hwy. 42 in Ephraim. For more information call 920.854.7559.