Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry

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. 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.

"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)

Lawyer|Poets|PublishingNews

2010 (Publications)(Forthcoming): Christopher Cessac, Eros Among the Americans (Main Street Rag, 2010)[Main Street Rag Publishing]; Monica Youn, Ignatz (Four Way Books, 2010); Paul Killebrew, Flowers (Canarium, 2010); Ann Tweedy, Beleaguered Oases (TcCreativePress, 2010); Dan Olivas, Crossing the Border (Ghost Road Press, 2010); Gregory Chaimov, Touchstones (Press 22, 2010).

2009 (Publications): Seth Abrahamson, The Surburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009); Michael Blumenthal, And ( BOA Editions, 2009)[cover]; Lee Robinson, Creed (Plainview Press, 2009)[Plainview Press]; Robert Boliek, Barry Marks, et.al., Einstein at the Odeon Café (Churn Dash Press, 2009);Andrew Borene, Blood, Sweat & Fury (iUniverse, 2009); Elizabeth Coleman, The Saint of Lost Things (Word Temple Press, 2009);Rachel Contreni Flynn, Haywire (Bright Hill Press, 2009)[Bright Hill Press]; Rebecca Foust, Mom's Canoe (Texas Review Press, 2009)[book cover]; William Keener, Gold Leaf on Granite (Anabiosis Press, 2009); Greg McBride, Back of the Envelope (Copperdome Press, 2009); Paul Rice, Through Yesterday's Window (Finishing Line Press, 2009); Jendi Reiter, Swallow (Amsterdam Press, 2009)[order information]; Jonathan Rothschild, The Last Clubhouse Eulogy (Chax Press, 2009); Kit Thornton, Piltdown Agonistees (publisher unknown)

Our "Best" for 2009: William Keener, Gold Leaf on Granite (Anabiosis Press, 2009); Michael Blumenthal, And ( BOA Editions, 2009)

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): L. Ward Abel, The Heat of Blooming (Pudding House Press, 2008); Jim Chastin, Antidotes & Home Remedies (Village Press Books, 2008); Rebecca Clark, Bending Light (Finishing Line Press, 2008); Nancy Henry, Who Are You? (Sheltering Pines Press, 2008);Louis Faber, The Right to Depart (Plain View Press, 2008); Rebecca Foust, Dark Card (Texas Review Press, 2008); Richard Krech, In Chambers (sunnyoutside press, 2008); Richard Krech, Within The Curtilage (Dover, Delaware: Bottle of Smoke Press, 2008); John Levy, Oblivion, Tyrants, Crumbs (First Intensity Press, 2008); Tim Nolan, The Sound of It (New Rivers Press, 2008); Frank Pommersheim, East of the River: Poems Both Ancient and New (Rose Hill Books, 2008); Carl Reisman, Home Geography (Stone City Press, 2008)(illustrated by Ronald Wojtanoski);Mike Sutin, Graven Images (Sunstone Press, 2008); Day Williams, 100 Sonnets (Carson City, Neveda: Days Rays, 2008); Susan Settlemyre Williams, Ashes in Midair (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2008); Kathleen Winter, Invisible Pictures (Finishing Line Press, 2008); Warren Woessner, Clear All the Rest of the Way: New & Selected Poems 1987-2007 (The Backwaters Press, 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). An issue of the Legal Studies Forum featuring Hoehn's was published in early 2009. The issue (119 pgs./$10) can be obtained by contacting James R. Elkins. The poetry is quite extraordinary.

News & Publications Archive

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)]