 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
2013 (Collections of Poetry by Lawyers): Elizabeth J. Coleman, Let My Ears Be Open (Finishing Line Press, 2013); Jamie Stern, Chasing Steam (Visual Artists Collective, 2013); L. Ward Abel, Cousins Over Colder Fields (Finishing Line Press); Seth Abramson, Thievery (University of Akron Press, 2013)
2013 (Collections of Poetry by Lawyers)(Forthcoming): Thomas J. Erickson, The Lawyer Who Died in the Courthouse Bathroom (Parallel Press);Ann Tweedy, White Out (Finishing Line Press); Michael Blumenthal, Be Kind (Etruscan Press); Dan Olivas, Crossing the Border (Ghost Road Press); TS Kerrigan, A Homecoming in the Next Parish Over (Central Avenue Press); David Michael Belczyk, The Unexpected Guest (Culturatti Ink); Jay Bryan, Selected Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2013)
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); Tim Nolan, And Then ( New Rivers Press, 2012); Michael Blumenthal, No Hurry: Poems 2000-2012 (Etruscan Press, 2012); Dan Burt,
We Look Like This (Carcanet Press/Alliance House, 2012); Paul R. Rice, Every Leaf Casts a Shadow (Finishing Line Press, 2012); L. Ward Abel, American Bruise (Parallel Press, 2012); Kathleen Winter,
Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (Elixir Press, 2012)Wendy Willis, Blood Sisters of the Republic (Press 53, 2012); Richard Alan Bunch,
Seasonings of the Milky Way (Infinity Publishing, 2012); Sam Haskins Attorney: Poems 1970-1980 (IFSF Publishing, 2012); Greg McBride, Porthole Briery Creek Press (2012)
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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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