Poetry reading to be held for English professor’s work

Like King David of Israel, Dr. Jesse Graves got his start in poetry as a writer of songs. Unlike David, who continued to sing, play and dance, Graves decided his forté was truly writing poetry and teaching this avocation.

"I started writing songs, or at least lyrics for songs, and as I realized I wasn't much of a musician, poetry became my real love," says Graves, who has taught poetry and literature at East Tennessee State University since 2009.

"I read a lot of novels and essays, and listen to a lot of music still, but for writing, the focus is on poems."

Graves does, however, share David's love of the land — land lovingly tended by family, by cherished ancestors. For instance, one of the poems in his newly published first book of poems, "Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine: Poems," focuses on the imagery of a rusting hay rake left on the ground near a tractor tire — on natural beauty so often overlooked.

"I like landscape and physical atmospheres in poems, and if I were from West Memphis (or western China) instead of East Tennessee, I would still be writing about my surroundings," says Graves, whose "Elegy for a Hay Rake" first appeared in "Appalachian Heritage," and is included in Graves' recent collection, "though the surroundings themselves might be different from the ones I have known."

While visiting ETSU last week for his own literary event, best-selling author and poet Ron Rash gave evidence to his affection for Graves' work by reading "Elegy" in addition to Rash's own poetry and prose.

"Jess Graves is the finest Appalachian poet of his generation," says Rash, who has four published poetry collections of his own. "ETSU should be proud of him."

To celebrate Graves' poetry collection, published at the end of 2011, Sigma Tau Delta, the English honors society, and the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services are sponsoring a reading by the assistant professor of English on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. in Mathes Hall 107. A reception and book sale and signing will be held afterward.

Graves says he will not only read from the collection, but will also preview newer work. The event is free and open to the public.

In addition to the recent publication, Graves, who holds a doctorate in English from University of Tennessee and a master's in poetry from Cornell University, has served as co-editor of "Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume III," "Contemporary Appalachia" and "Outscape: Writings on Fences and Frontiers" and was guest editor for a special issue of "The Southern Quarterly" on "The Poetry and Prose of Robert Morgan," a former professor of Graves'.

Although Graves has lived in Louisiana and New York, his inspiration mostly comes from his homeland, Northeast Tennessee, and his ancestors — like David, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and son of Jesse in the Bible — and their legacies are integral to who he is and what he cares most deeply about.

"I grew up just about an hour north of Knoxville, in Sharps Chapel, Tenn., a community my German ancestors settled in the 1780s," he says. "I think that must play some role in why I write about it so much, that long history and attachment to one place. "

Despite the strong roots in the soil of Appalachia, the professor and poet says readers from the around the world can relate to his verse, or at least that is his intention and hope.

"I think one of the smartest truisms about good writing is that you get to the universal through the specific, and that is what I hope my poems someday might achieve," he says.

Graves' poems are about people. Even that abandoned rake bore the marks of the father and his predecessors' use and abuse.

"I think there are more people in my poems than in most recent poetry, and I think that makes it more familiar, more accessible," says Graves, who notes that poetry is much more about expressing and evoking feeling than thinking or over-thinking.

"I hope that readers will find something they can relate to in my poems, something they might have thought or felt before."

Every poet or songwriter is seeking to strike the right chord in the listener or reader, seeking to make a connection across a void of time, experience or interests.

A poetry reading may sound very literary and elitist, but that's not really the case, Graves says.

"Well, [the listener] might hear something that relates to his own life, and maybe it will be said in a way he hadn't considered before," he says. "Poetry is very good at making the strange feel familiar, and the familiar feel strange, and that's why I think a reading is the best way to get turned on to poetry."

For information on the poetry reading, contact Dr. Daniel Westover at 423-439-4339 or westover@mail.etsu.edu.