Read poetry—lots of it! . . . And write every day. . .
Something else I've learned is how important
it is to have a receptive attitude when starting
a poem. . . approach it as an explorer. . . .
~ Shari Wagner's Advice to Young Poets*
Shari Wagner takes office as Indiana's new Poet Laureate on January 1, 2016. Her term is two years; she serves through December 31, 2017.
Wagner is Indiana's sixth Poet Laureate. Background on the Poet Laureate position is found in my
profile of Norbert Krapf (2008-2010).
The successor of
George Kalameras, Wagner plans during her tenure to travel throughout Indiana to promote the state's poets and the writing and reading of poems. She is experienced in teaching in universities and colleges, grade schools, retirement and nursing homes, and a range of other community and institutional settings. (One of her
workshops is titled "Poetry as Memoir: Defining Moments in a Life"; another is "Women Veterans' Memoirs: A Writing Workshop".) Noting Indiana's upcoming bicentennial and the centennial of Indiana's state parks, Wagner intends also to emphasize poetry's relationship to history and nature. Her own poetry demonstrates those connections beautifully.
* * * * *
. . . you search for subject matter, focus, and point
of view. An attitude of exploration is essential and so is
an openness to what arrives as a gift—an unexpected slant
of light or simile. You try to avoid the cliche and sentimental,
while looking for imagery that elicits emotion. . . the choice
of what you don't include is as important as what you do.
~ Shari Wagner on Relationship of Writing to Photography*
A poet, memoirist, and essayist, as well as a photographer, Indiana native
Shari Wagner is the author of
The Harmonist at Nightfall: Poems of Indiana (Bottom Dog Press, 2013) and her debut collection
Evening Chore (Cascadia Publishing House, 2005). A third collection, in the voice of a farm wife, is in progress. According to her
Website, Wagner also is at work on poems in the voices of men and women in Indiana history.
With her father, Dr. Gerald L. Miller, Wagner co-wrote
Making the Rounds: Memoirs of a Small-Town Doctor (Booklocker, June 2015) and
A Hundred Camels: A Mission Doctor's Murder Trial and Sojourn in Somalia (DreamSeeker Books, 2009). She also is the editor of
Returning: Stories from the Indianapolis Senior Center (Writers' Center of Indiana, 2012).
Wagner's poems, which author and reviewer Maura Stanton says "dazzle with their imagery and music", take as their subjects place (Indiana itself figures prominently), personal history, family and community, worklife, nature, memory, past and present, ancestry and heritage (Mennonite), culture, and myth and legend.
Below are excerpts from several poems that demonstrate how Wagner draws deep inspiration from the natural world to create strong, beautifully realized images:
[. . .]
I find
the slender ironwood with muscles tense
as adolescence when their nerves were fused to mine.
The pallid beech with eyes of a sphinx
still gazes further [. . . .]
~ from "The Woods"
[. . .]
prayers like flakes
of snow have been falling. [. . .]
~ from "The Prayers of Saint Meinrad"
[. . .]
The encyclopedia said our bird
was omnivorous like marabou
storks, those stately old
gentlemen who stood statuesque
in the garden but in a lunatic rush
devoured left-over scraps. [. . .]
~ from "Rook"
He practiced the alphabet on your broken clods,
scraped with stick or toe until what sprouted
bore the snap-bean wit of Aesop,
unfurled like Arabian tales. [. . .]
~ from "Lincoln's Field"
Poems by Wagner have been published in such literary periodicals as
American Life in Poetry,
Black Warrior Review,
The Christian Century,
Indiana Review,
The Mennonite Weekly Review,
Midland Review,
National Wetlands Newsletter,
North American Review,
Poetry East,
Shenandoah,
Southern Poetry Review,
Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History,
Valparaiso Poetry Review, and
The Writer's Almanac. Wagner's work also is found in the anthologies
A Cappella: Mennonite Vocies in Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 2013),
Naturally Yours: Poems About Indiana State Parks and Reservoirs (2013),
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 (Mariner Books), and
And Know This Place: Poetry of Indiana (Indiana Historical Society, 2011).
Among Wagner's honors are two Indianapolis Arts Council
Creative Renewal Fellowships, more than a half-dozen Indiana Arts Commission Project Grants, the
Carter Prize for the Essay (from
Shenandoah, 2009; for "Camels, Cowries & A Poem for Aisha"), and three
Pushcart Prize nominations. Wagner's Poem "Lincoln Field" won the Brick Street Poetry Prize and was featured in the Winter 2011 issue of
Tipton Poetry Journal. (The journal is published by Brick Street Poetry; see link below.)
Photo Credit: Tamara Dubin Brown
All Poetry Quotes © Shari Wagner
* Quoted from Shari Wagner's Interview with George Kalamaras (See link below.)
Shari Wagner Poems Online: "
First Flight" at
Valparaiso Poetry Review; "The farm wife hoists the family flag", "The farm wife muses upon her Miracle Tree", "The farm wife repeats a lullaby", "The farm wife examines her Mennonite roots", "The farm wife eats out at Marner's Six Mile Cafe", "The farm wife finds her necklace in the junk drawer", "Creek-song", "Olin Lake", "Daredevil", "Creek-side prayer", and "Catbirds", All at
The Christian Century; "
These Rocks" at
Shenandoah; "The Woods", "Year of the Rabbit", "From the Tree of Knowledge", "The farm wife speaks of her lucky buckeye", "At the Juvenile Correctional Facility", and "The Skunk Lady", All at
The Wabash Watershed; "
The farm wife sells her cows" at
The Writer's Almanac (Audio Available); "
Levi and Catherine Coffin House" from
The Harmonist at Nightfall at
No more corn (Blog); "Creek-Song" at
American Life in Poetry; "Inside Stone", "Amish Hymn", and "Last Pilgrimage", All at
Today's Book of Poetry (Michael Dennis Blog); "The Prayers of Saint Meinrad" and "Indian Lake", Both at
Perspectives Journal; "
Lincoln's Field" at Indiana Humanities; "
Creek-Song" at The Poetry Foundation; "
The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife" at
DreamSeeker Magazine; "To the Fireflies in a Drought Year" at
Tipton Poetry Journal on Issuu; "Simon Pokagon and the Farmer" in
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 on
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