Poetic calm

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Joanna Klink seemed perfectly at ease Thursday afternoon in Classics 10, where she quieted the buzzing audience of about 50 students and faculty members with her image-laden poetry. Her poise in the crowded room reflected the calm of her verse, introduced by English language & literature assistant professor Oren Izenberg as providing a “foundation for the chaos of the world to be understood.”

Klink pronounced each word with doting attention, pausing after particularly poignant images so that the audience might fully appreciate the beauty of “air filled with moths as light as pencil outlines.” The natural environment surrounding Klink at the University of Montana, where she teaches, figures prominently in her work and informs what she called her “poetry of the North.” Antelope, flickers, and barn swallows were the unsuspecting subjects of her poems, which came from an unpublished manuscript she was “testing out” on the Classics audience.

Klink also gave a 1 p.m. lecture today in Gates-Blake 321. Thursday’s reading marked the first Poem Present event of 2005. The series continues through the spring, welcoming five more poets to campus.

By Meredith Meyer, ’06

February 11, 2005