 Lawyers
and Poetry
On first impression, it seems that lawyers and poets
must exist in different universes of thought and feeling,
product and practice. For many lawyers and poets there may be
truth embodied in the crude impression: the law leads north
and poetry south; to follow the one path is to preclude 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, 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, at times a sense of wonder,
at the idea of someone who is a 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 lawyers and poets,
in a similar way, 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. With our great ignorance
of poetry, how can it continue to play a
part in our literary lives? What makes poetry, and the poet,
special, different, marginal, misunderstood, ignored?
We may find that the poet and the lawyer see 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
tastes, 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 ]
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.
The website undergoes constant updating. 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
2001-2011
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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|PublishingNews
News & Publications of Lawyer Poets Archive
[2001-2010]
Rattle's Tribute to Lawyer Poets
2012 (Collections of
Poetry by Lawyers): Tom Jones, Nearing Palenque--Reflections on Native America: New and Selected Poems (FootHills Publishing, 2012); Kathleen Winter, Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (
Elixir Press, 2012); Laurel Kallen,
The Forms of Discomfort (Finishing Line Press, 2012); James McKenna, The Common Law (Moon Pie Press, 2012); Wallace McCall,
Pomeranian Pandemonium and Other Poems (CreateSpace, 2012); David Filer, Housekeeping (Finishing Line Press, 2012), David Filer, The Feat of Love (Plain View Press, 2012)
2012 (Collections of Poetry by Lawyers)(Forthcoming): Michael Blumenthal,
Be Kind (Etruscan Press); Dan Olivas, Crossing the Border (Ghost Road Press); L. Ward Abel, American Bruise (Parallel Press); TS Kerrigan, A Homecoming in the Next Parish Over (Central Avenue Press); David Michael Belczyk, The Unexpected Guest (Culturatti Ink); Tim Nolan,
And Then ( New Rivers Press)
2013 (Collections of Poetry by Lawyers)(Forthcoming):
Thomas J. Erickson, The Lawyer Who Died in the Courthouse Bathroom (Parallel Press, 2013)
2011 (Collections of
Poetry by Lawyers): Evie Shockley, the new black
(Wesleyan, 2011);
Seth Abramson, Northerners (Western Michigan University
Press, 2011); Maureen
Thorson, Applies to Oranges (Ugly Duckling Presse)(book
trailer); Joni Wallace, Blinking Ephemeral Valentine
(Four Way Books, 2011);
Gregory Chaimov, Everything is Water (Press 22);
Martín Espada, The Trouble Ball (W.W.
Norton and Company, 2011); John Fitzgerald, The Mind
(Salmon Poetry, 2011); Raymond Zachary Ortiz, We Had More to Say: Poems from the Pilgrimage Road (Sunstone Press, 2011); David Filer, Weather Patterns: Selected Short Poems (Dancing Moon Press, 2011); Laurie Soriano, Catalina (Lummox Press, 2011); Josey Foo, A Lily Lilies (Nightboat Books, 2011)(with notes on Dance by Leah Stein); Mary Anne Reese, Raised by Water (Finishing Line Press, 2011); Dan Burt, Certain Windows (Lincott Press, 2011); Oscar S. Cisneros, The History of Dying Stars: A Book of Poetry and Art (Old Man Whimsley & Co., 2011); Mary Anne Reese, Raised by Water (Finishing Line Press, 2011); Richard Alan Bunch, Collected Poems 1965-2011 (Infinity Publishing, 2011); Kristin Roedell, Girls with Gardenias (Flutter Press, 2011); Alice N. Persons, Thank Your Lucky Stars (Moon Pie Press, 2011); Shane McCrae, Mule (Cleveland State University Poetry
Center, 2011)
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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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