 Lawyers
and Poetry
It seems, on first impression, as if lawyer and poet
must surely exist in different universes of thought, feeling, and
practice. And for many lawyers and poets,there must be truth embodied
in this crude impression–the law leads north and poetry south,
to follow one is to give up the other. Yet, lawyers write poetry,
and poets practice law. Should we be surprised to learn that lawyers,
by training and craft, attuned to the nuance and power of language,
and to the clever deployment of language as rhetoric and drama,
write poetry? We may have grown accustomed, in this era of John
Grisham and Scott Turow, to the idea of the lawyer as novelist,
but there is still some mystery, even a sense of wonderment, at
the idea of a person both poet and lawyer.
Perhaps there is no reason to think so grandly of
our poets or so badly of our lawyers. The celebration of the one
and the damnation of the other becomes rather confused when we find
a man or woman embracing both. Perhaps we misunderstand our poets,
in the way we do lawyers, because we know so little of their practices,
their language, and their contribution to a literate society. Whatever
the relative merits and worth of lawyers and poets, we are fast
becoming a society which knows far more about its lawyers than about
its poets. (We know it to be the exceptional reader and person who
reads poetry, and claims to learn from it, to depend on it to hone
sensibilities and chart a path in the world.) With our great ignorance
(if not active disdain) of poetry, how can it continue to play a
part in our literary lives? What makes poetry, and thus the poet,
special, different, marginal, misunderstood, ignored?
We may find that the poet, like the lawyer, sees the
world in a nuanced way that demands it be addressed with a special
language, language that calls attention to itself and sets itself
apart by form, rhythm, and practice. Both poetry and law are acquired
taste, all the more surprising, to have such tastes acquired by
a single person.
What then can be said about lawyers who become poets, poets who
become lawyers? First things first. We begin by identifying this country's lawyer/poets.
Chronological Index
Alphabetical Index
State Index
Civil War
Misc. Index
Contemporary
Lawyer Poets [ A-L ]
Contemporary
Lawyer Poets [ M- Z ]
An Anthology of Poetry by Lawyers
Lawyer
Poets Around the World
Poetry Resources
Books By Lawyer/Poets We're Reading
News Archive
Strangers to Us All:
Lawyers and Poetry is based on research conducted by Professor James R. Elkins, College of Law,
West Virginia University. The
site was first posted on Labor Day, September 2, 2001.
Since that first posting the site has undergone constant revision. I add the names of newly discovered lawyer
poets as I locate them.
Please contact Professor
Elkins with criticisms or aberrant thoughts about this endeavor. Suggestions
for additions are particularly welcome as is biographical information which can be be used on any of the webpages.
© James R. Elkins,
September 2, 2001-2008
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"The principles of the poetic sentiment lie deep within the immortal nature of man, and have little necessary reference to the worldly circumstances which surround him."
—Edgar A. Poe, "Griswold's American Poetry," 2 (5) The Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion 218 (Nov. 1, 1842)
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Lawyer|Poets|News
2009 (Publications): Michael Blumenthal, And ( BOA Editions, 2009)[cover]; Lee Robinson, Creed (Plainview Press, 2009)[Plainview Press]; Rachel Contreni Flynn, Haywire (Bright Hill Press, 2009)[Bright Hill Press]; Andrew Borene, Blood, Sweat & Fury (iUniverse, 2009); Robert Boliek, Barry Marks, et.al., Einstein at the Odeon Café (Churn Dash Press, 2009); Ron Talney, Night Sky (Stone City Press, 2009)
2009 (Publications)(Forthcoming): Seth Abrahamson, The Surburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009); Rachel Contreni Flynn,
Full-Time Permanent (Tupelo Press, 2009),
William Keener,
Gold Leaf on Granite (Anabiosis Press, 2009); Rebecca Foust,
Mom's Canoe (Texas Review Press, 2009)[book cover]; Raymond Z. Ortiz, We Had More to Say (Sunstone Press, 2009); Ann Tweedy, Beleaguered Oases (TcCreativePress, 2009); Elizabeth Coleman, The Saint of Lost Things (Word Temple Press, 2009); Paul Rice,
Through Yesterday's Window (Finishing Line Press, 2009)
2010 (Publications)(Forthcoming): Daniel A. Olivas, Crossing the Border (Ghost Road Press)
2009 (Legal Studies Forum): Our 2009 issues include three, single poet issues: Margaret J. Hoehn's "collected works"; Gary Forrester's "The Beautiful Daughters of Men" (a novella in short verse); Lee Warner Brooks's "Novlets: 67 Sonnets."
Our "general issue" for 2009 presents poetry by: Iris Alkalay, David Berman, Robert Boliek, Christopher Cessac, Laura Chalar, Elizabeth J. Coleman, Laura Fargas, Léonie Garicoïts, John Hay, Laurel Kallen, William Kenner, Bruce Laxalt, Barry Marks, Jesse Mountjoy, Mariella Nigro, John Perrault, Charles Reynard, Michael Sowder, Saul Touster, Elena Vázquez, Michael Walls, and Warren Wolfson. (It also includes stories by Paul Homer, Lowell B. Komie, and Laura Chalar.)
2008 (Publications): David Filer, The Landscape There (Stone City Press, 2008); Louis Faber, The Right to Depart (Plain View Press, 2008); Rebecca Foust, Dark Card (Texas Review Press, 2008); Tim Nolan, The Sound of It (New Rivers Press, 2008); Richard Krech, In Chambers (sunnyoutside press, 2008); Richard Krech, Within The Curtilage (Dover, Delaware: Bottle of Smoke Press, 2008); Warren Woessner, Clear All the Rest of the Way: New & Selected Poems 1987-2007 (The Backwaters Press, 2008); Rebecca Clark, Bending Light (Finishing Line Press, 2008); Mike Sutin, Graven Images (Sunstone Press, 2008); Nancy Henry, Who Are You? (Sheltering Pines Press, 2008); Susan Settlemyre Williams, Ashes in Midair (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2008); Kathleen Winter, Invisible Pictures (Finishing Line Press, 2008); Carl Reisman, Home Geography (Stone City Press, 2008)(illustrated by Ronald Wojtanoski); Jim Chastin, Antidotes & Home Remedies (Village Press Books, 2008); Day Williams, 100 Sonnets (Carson City, Neveda: Days Rays, 2008); John Levy, Oblivion, Tyrants, Crumbs (First Intensity Press, 2008); Frank Pommersheim, East of the River: Poems Both Ancient and New (Rose Hill Books, 2008)
Our 2008 'Best Finds' (of previously published work): Two collections and two chapbooks by Margaret J. Hoehn: Vanishings (Writers Voice of the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA, 1998); Balancing on Light: Poems (Riverstone, 2002); The Trajectory of Sunflowers (Backwaters Press, 2004); Traveling Without a Map (Anabiosis Press, 2005). A new issue of the Legal Studies Forum featuring Hoehn's poetry has now been published. The Hoehn LSF issue can be obtained by contacting James R. Elkins. The Hoehn issue–119 pgs.–is $10; the poetry is quite extraordinary.
News & Publications Archive
2001-2008
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For an essay on lawyer/poets, see James R. Elkins,
The Remnants of a Lost & Forgotten Library: On Finding the Lawyer Poets, 30 Legal Stud. F. 1 (2006) [on-line text]
Contact Professor Elkins.
[Website image (books-lamp-quill): Thomas W. Herringshaw (ed.), Poets and Poetry of Kansas (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1894)]
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