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Rousing Roethke: Centennial Year Comes to a Close

by Gina Myers

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Theodore Roethke once wrote, “Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste.  It’s what everything else isn’t.”

On Sunday, May 30, 2009, a group of poets and poetry-lovers gathered at the Anderson Enrichment Center for the annual Rouse for Roethke, an event started by the late Saginaw poet Al Hellus, and set aside to honor the work of Roethke and to undo some of that damage of haste. 

Roethke, a Saginaw native, would have turned 101 on May 25th, and the Rouse, followed by a reading by featured poets, a bridge walk over Court Street Bridge, and a fundraising dinner at Jake’s Old City Grill, brought to close a year of centennial celebrations honoring the poet.

For many, the Rouse for Roethke is the highlight of the annual birthday celebrations.  For those who are already fans of his work, it is an opportunity to hear and admire Roethke’s poems, and for those who are unfamiliar with his work, the Rouse can serve as a good introduction because it features a wide variety of poems and demonstrates Roethke’s range in style and tone.  The Rouse also draws a range of people together, which is something JodiAnn Stevenson is pleased about.  

Stevenson, who teaches poetry at Delta College and helped organize this year’s event, said, “I was particularly excited to see several young and up-and-coming poets attend the Rouse.  There are pockets of fairly well-established writing groups and individuals in this area that attend events, and then there are pockets of these young, energetic writers in the area who are attending other events.  I want to see more and more events that draw both of these groups together.  I see the Roethke house as possibly being an integral part of a movement to bring these groups—all of these groups—together.” 

Poet and retired Central Michigan University Professor Eric Torgeson also sees great potential for the Roethke homes and for poetry in this area. Torgeson began reading Roethke as a college student in the early sixties and remembers being shocked and saddened by Roethke’s early death.  He rushed out and purchased The Far Field, Roethke’s posthumous last book, as soon as it came out.  “I love that Roethke wrote so many different kinds of poems, including light verse and poems for kids, two things I do myself,” Torgeson said.

A native New Yorker, Torgeson grew up about a mile and a half from the house on Long Island where Walt Whitman was born.  “Many things were named after him: a high school, a road, a bowling alley even.  Everyone knows his name, and that a great poet was born right there, and it gives poetry a kind of legitimacy,” he explained.  “The Walt Whitman House is a kind of model of what the Roethke homes could become if the people of Saginaw got behind it—a center not only for Roethke but for poetry in general.  So I went to the Rouse to honor a great poet and support that possibility.” 

Poet Skip Renker has participated in the Rouse many times, and he remembers the early days of the event when it was organized by Al Hellus.  “When Al was in charge, we usually read outside somewhere, a marathon reading of all of Roethke’s works, lasting hours and hours—maybe 5 or 6.  Readers and audience members would come and go throughout.  Sometimes there was a featured outside poet, sometimes not.  Often there was food and drink.  It was very informal.”  With Hellus’s passing, this year’s Rouse had a special meaning for a number of the poets who read.  Renker said, “I participated in memory of Al and to support the Roethke house, but also because I love Roethke’s poetry and it is important to keep up his memory.”     

This year’s event was much larger than previous events, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a $5,000 matching funds donation from Meijer Corporation.  Annie Ransford, board president of the non-profit organization Friends of Theodore Roethke, said that the centennial celebrations would not have been possible without this financial support. 

“We were so lucky to have a chairman’s grant from the NEA.  It was Chairman Dana Gioia who felt the need to celebrate Roethke, one of his favorite poets, during Roethke’s centennial year.”  Ransford explained, “Instead of just giving one day, which would have been May, 25, 2008, we were able to stretch the celebration out over the year, ending with a two day event, instead of the usual one day.”

The grant also made it possible to bring in David Wagoner, a student and friend of Roethke who resides in Seattle.  Wagoner read his play about Roethke, First Class, taught a poetry workshop, read his own work, and read two of Roethke’s poems during the bridge walk.    

For Ransford, the bridge walk was the highlight of the centennial.  “My favorite aspect of the celebration is to have all those poets on the bridge.  [It was a] glorious day, looking out over the water, looking out at Roethke’s Saginaw.”

For the second year, Mayor Joyce Seals also read during the bridge walk.  Closing the Rouse, she gave an impassioned reading of Roethke’s poems “Highway: Michigan” and “Saginaw Song.” 

Ransford was delighted and honored to have the Mayor participate, and she sees it as a good sign of support.  “I do see a lot of support for Roethke in the community,” she said.  “More people are learning about Roethke, knowing that we’re here, knowing that we need funding so that we can renovate and do more outreach in the community with Roethke’s house as a museum and the house next door as a development center.”

Now that the centennial celebration has come to a close, there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of events planned.  The Friends of Theodore Roethke will continue offering their community programs, but this summer they are planning to collaborate more with other Saginaw non-profits.  They recently teamed up with the Saginaw Zoo for a party based on Roethke’s poem “Party at the Zoo,” and they are planning a family story circle with storyteller Alfreda Harris at Hoyt Library in the fall.  Ransford assures that there is a lot more to come.

As for next year’s celebration, the details aren’t planned yet, but Ransford hopes to reach out to colleges and universities throughout the state to create another big event.

For more information on the Friends of Theodore Roethke, call 989-280-6499.

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