In times of protest, poetry can be an impactful utilization of words to enact change. That’s exactly what Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Lytton Smith’s new chapbook, The Square, accomplishes.
Smith hosted a virtual reading to launch The Square, published by New Michigan Press, on Monday, Feb. 22. The Square examines the patterns formed by protests across the world. Smith read alongside fellow writers Tony Leuzzi, Idra Novey and TC Tolbert at the virtual reading. Over 50 attendees were present on the Zoom call, including professors, staff, alumni, students and other guests.
The reading began as Smith introduced Tony Leuzzi and his book Meditation Archipelago.
“His poems are like prisms, slowing and refracting the sites of the world so that we can see them both more fully and more strangely,” Smith said. “Often more fully because more strangely. Tony’s a masterful magician of language.”
Leuzzi read several poems, two of which—“Word Problem” and “Surfacing”—played with syllables in each line to mimic his zip code. He also read several untitled sonnets consecutively, playing with nine syllables and no rhymes. Leuzzi’s poems varied in theme, from innocence and childhood to sexuality and relationships.
As Leuzzi’s reading came to an end, Idra Novey’s section began. Smith also gave her a wonderful introduction.
“I have learned from her writing how events that have taken place before us are still with us or at least that they ought to be,” Smith said. “It’s one of the many things I’ve learned from Idra in many contexts over the years.”
Novey read poems from Lean Against This Late Hour by Iranian Garous Abdolmalekian, which she translated to English with Ahmad Nadalizadeh. She ended her section of the event with a passage from her book Those Who Knew about a character who lives in exile and a ghost, focusing on untold histories.
The reading finally pivoted to Smith as he described the context of The Square. Smith began working with the idea for the piece eight years ago, after attending a conference about acts of citizenship. He wondered how people could capture these acts in poetry. This led to the exploration of repetitive political structures and uprisings or protests that exist across the world.
“How do we think not just about the one event, but about multiple events and the fact that there are these structures of repetition,” Smith said. “Poetry is really good at repetition. The Square is an attempt to witness the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, but also to think about how repetitious uprisings can be and how many locations this has happened in, in hoping that, if we can notice these structures and repetitions, that it might be a way to intervene. And it might become an act of citizenship.”
Smith’s poetry contains visceral images of protests—from bodies to tear gas and everything in between. The chapbook follows an arc, beginning with trauma and moving toward hope that the protesters’ words will be heard and that they will exercise their voices through their vote.
After his reading, Smith introduced Tolbert and described his “Dear Melissa” series and his recent book Gephyromania, the title of which means an obsession with bridges.
“I love how vastly TC reaches in writing and how needle-fine the precision of that writing is,” Smith said. “The way TC’s recent ‘Dear Melissa’ series can offer the wisdom of ‘on each body is carried the shape of its absence’ and also thread its poems together through the momentum and stitchwork of punctation marks like the em dash.”
Tolbert explained that “Dear Melissa” is a series exploring his transition, his car accident, and his need “to be in conversation with Melissa and bring her into the present moment.” Tolbert also chose an interactive approach to his reading, encouraging the audience to read words of the poem, almost like a chorus.
Throughout the evening as each poet read, they praised Smith and the launch of The Square, citing Smith’s brilliance and generosity. The Zoom chat also went wild with praises of the work of all speakers. When the reading portion of the event concluded, the poets happily stayed after to answer questions.
Although The Square was initially inspired by old conflicts in the United Kingdom, one attendee asked how the United States’ Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 contributed to Smith’s work. Smith cited the pattern of repetition and described how there would always be another event. What matters is how one approaches their work.
“I want to keep checking myself,” Smith said. “Am I writing poems rather than doing something? I always try to think, what is the poem doing? It’s only a part of the puzzle, but if the poem is doing something that is useful—and that can be in the syntax or the other kinds of intervention in language. It gives it that springboard into making an interventionist gesture.”
Tolbert further touched on the point of how a poem should be impactful.
“If we live our poems, if we live that em dash, sh*t would really change” Tolbert said. “Whereas if the poem stays on the page, you just read a poem, so what? The moment the poem forces me to change myself, my actions, my relations to others, to change my being…then to me, the poem has done something of interest or of worth.”
In answer to a final question, Smith noted how much his visual fellowship in Rochester and the Campus Canvas project with Director of Sustainability at SUNY Geneseo Dan DeZarn influenced the creation of The Square. He also acknowledged the creativity of his Geneseo students.
“I’ve been going on a journey, thanks to students largely,” Smith said. “One of the amazing things about being at SUNY Geneseo is just how creative and collaborative and boundary-pushing students are.”
Please visit New Michigan Press to buy Smith’s chapbook and, hopefully, to understand the power of poetry and how it affects the world.