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

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.

Lawyer|Poets|News

Our Recent (spring|2008) 'Best Finds' (of older 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)

[We look forward to publishing Hoehn's poetry in a 2009 issue of the Legal Studies Forum]

2009 (Publications)(Forthcoming): Seth Abrahamson, The Surburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009)

2008 (Publications)(Forthcoming): Louis Faber, The Right to Depart (Plain View Press, 2008); Canabanadaman: The Collected Poems of Gary Botting (T.M. Gagnon, ed.)(2008); Simon Perchik, Family of Man (Pavement Saw Press, 2008)

2008 (Publications): 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)

Best Collection of Poetry by a Lawyer (2008): T.S. Kerrigan, My Dark People (Central Avenue Press, 2008)

2007 (Publications): Roberta Beary, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press, 2007); Mark Brodeur, Sisters Katrina & Ria: Poems From the Aftermath (Tate Publishing, 2007); Robert Boliek, Barry Marks, et.al., Poems from The Big Table (Churn Dash Press, 2007)(Jerri Beck ed.); Isidore Century, From the Coffee House of Jewish Dreamers: Poems of Wonder and Wandering (Ben Yehuda Press, 2007); Nancy A. Henry, Our Lady of Let's All Sing (Sheltering Pines Press, 2007); Jerry Hoffman, the quality of light in alabama (Xlibris, 2007); Ken Jones, Ceaseless Greasepaint in Combat Stance (Slough Press, 2007); Rebecca Foust, Dark Card (Texas Review Press, 2007); Richard Krech, Some Global Positioning Dharma (Red Barn Press, 2007); Richard Krech, From Both Sides of the Line Break (glass eye books, 2007); Richard Krech, We Are on the Verge of Ecstacy: Selected Early Poems 1965-1970 (Green Panda Press, 2007); David Krieger, The Doves Flew High (Artamo Press, 2007); Brad Leithauser, Curves and Angles: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007); James Liddy, On the Raft with Fr. Roseliep (Arlean House, 2006); Joyce Meyers, Wild Mushrooms (Plan B Press, 2007); Alice N. Persons, Don't Be a Stranger (Sheltering Pines Press, 2007); Paul Rice, Walking Among Shadows: Searching For the Red Sunfish (Fishing Line Press, 2007); Lynn Thompson, Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007); Stephen B. Wiley, Mockingbird Come Home (Oasis, 2007); Susan Settlemyre Williams, Possession (Finishing Line Press, 2007); Taiyu John Robertson, Always Doing Being We Live Our Lives (Lulu, 2007)(memoir in free verse)

Best Collection of Poetry by a Lawyer (2007): Greg Rappleye, Figured Dark (University of Arkansas Press, 2007)

2006 (Publications): Patsy Bickerstaff, Mrs. Noah’s Journal (San Francisco Bay Press, 2006); Mark Brodeur, Homage: Poems in the Voices of the Western Canon (Tate Publishing, 2006); R ichard M. "Rick" Georges, Life is Simple, Really: Poems About Life, Loving, Fun and Family (PublishAmerica, 2006); Ken Jones, Unutterable Blunders and Palace Disasters (Plain View Press, 2006); Sara Littlecrow-Russell, The Secret Powers of Naming (University of Arizona Press, 2006); Richard Krech, Second Opinion (Bottle of Smoke Press, 2006); Brad Leithauser, Curves and Angles: Poems (Knopf, 2006); Martín Espada, The Republic of Poetry (W.W. Norton & Co., 2006); Wayne Miller, Only the Senses Sleep (New Issues Poetry Press, 2006); Jim Chastin, I Survived Cancer, But Never Won the Tour de France (Hawk Publishing, 2006)(memoir and poetry); Jim Chastin, Like Some First Human Being (2006); Wayne Miller, Only the Senses Sleep (Western Michigan University, 2006); Paul Homer, Impressions From A Curmudgeon: A Collection of Poems (BookSurge Publishing, 2006); Brandon D. Johnson, Love’s Skin (The Word Works, 2006); Simon Perchik, The Milton Poems (Ahadada Books, eChapbook, 2006); Mark Brodeur, Homage: Poems in the Voices of the Western Canon (Tate Publishing, 2006); Brandon D. Johnson, Love's Skin (The Word Works, 2006); Mark Falkin, The Half-Life of Casual Joy (Lulu Press, 2006); RJ McCaffery, Ice Sculpture of Mermaid With Cigar (Three Candles Press, 2006); Evie Shockley, a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006); Shari O’Brien, Uncaged (Shadows Ink Publications, 2006); Vanessa Kittle, Apart (March Street Press, 2006)

Best Collections of Poetry by Lawyers (2006):

Richard Krech, Rumors of Electricity (sunnyoutside, 2006)[press release]

Ron Talney, The Broken World (Stone City Press, 2006)

Charles Williams, Asparagus Seems Deaf (Harmony House Publishers, 2006)

2005 (Publications): Michael Blumenthal, Days We Would Rather Know (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2005)(Viking Press, 1984); David Filer, Night Verse (Finishing Line Press, 2005); John M. FitzGerald, Spring Water (Turning Point, 2005); Rachel Contreni Flynn, Ice, Mouth, Song: A Collection of Poems (Tupelo Press, 2005); Nancy A. Henry, Europe on $5 a Day: Selected Poems (Moon Pie Press, 2005); Margaret J. Hoehn, Traveling Without a Map (Anabiosis Press, 2005); Lawrence Joseph, Codes, Precepts, Biases, and Taboos: Poems 1973-1993 (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2005); Lawrence Joseph, Into It: Poems (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2005); David Kreiger, Today is Not a Good Day for War (Capra Press, 2005); Bruce Laxalt, Songs of Mourning and Worship (Black Rock Press, 2005); Barry S. Marks, There is Nothing Oppressive as a Good Man: A Collection of Poetry by Barry S. Marks (Dancing Rabbit Press, 2005); David May, Love and the Persistence of Illusion (AuthorHouse, 2005); Shauuna Oteka McCovey, The Smokehouse Boys (Heyday Books, 2005); Carl Reisman, Kettle (Hot Lead Press, 2005); Bessy Reyna, The Battlefield of Your Body (El Campo de Batalla de Tu Cuerpo) (Hill-Stead Museum, 2005); Mike Sutin, Naked Ladies on the Road (Sunstone, 2005); Robert G. Wetmore, Old Thoughts, New Directions (PublishAmerica, 2005); Stephen B. Wiley, Hero Island (Oasis, 2005)

2004 (Contemporary Lawyers and Their Poetry): The Legal Studies Forum, edited by James R. Elkins, publishes the poetry of contemporary lawyers. In February, 2004, LSF published a volume of poetry titled, Off the Record: An Anthology of Poetry by Lawyers, the first collection of non-law-related poetry ever published (or so our research would suggest). The anthology presented the poetry of sixty-six contemporary lawyer poets (and poets who took up the study of law but abandoned the legal profession for other pursuits). [on-line text]

2005 (Legal Studies Forum): In May, 2005, the Legal Studies Forum published a second poetry-focused issue of poetry by lawyers, Hank Lazer's law poetry and essays about Lazer's work, and interviews with lawyer poets Ruthann Robson and Simon Perchik. The poetry in this issue is available online: Intelligible Hues.

2006 (Legal Studies Forum): In March, 2006, a third major collection of poetry by lawyers was published by the Legal Studies Forum and is now available. [on-line text]

2007 (Legal Studies Forum): In 2007, the Legal Studies Forum published an issue of poetry, essays, and fiction by Michael Blumenthal, and tributes to Chicago lawyer/novelist/short-story writer, Lowell B. Komie. We also published a "supplemental" issue devoted to the poetry, fiction, and essays of Leslie Hall Pinder, a Vancouver lawyer.

2008 (Legal Studies Forum): In January, 2008, the Legal Studies Forum presented still another substantial collection of poetry (along with a judicious selection of short stories, memories, and writings for which we haven't as yet discovered a name).

In April, 2008, the Legal Studies Forum arrived: It features memoirs, essays on legal education, and a featured poet, Tom Jones.

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)]