The Daily Campus

Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Matt Lin Poet Wally Swist speaks to students at the Co-op Wednesday afternoon.

Famous poet Wally Swist shared a documentary as well as firsthand readings of various poems on Wednesday in the UConn Co-op.

Pursuing his passion for writing, Swist began writing at the age of 15. After growing older, Swist worked at a few bookshops, including being the manager of the University of Massachusetts bookstore. Through his life Swist has had much success in his career as a writer and his literary abilities were made evident when his poem "Cinnamon Sticks" was read.

Much of Swist's inspiration comes from nature. He spends time trekking in the outdoors moved by nature so much that its beauty is reflected in the words of his poems. Swist describes the feeling of being in nature as a humbling one. He says, "It's really a loss of self and loss of ego." He gives us insight to how he feels when stepping into the realm of a wooded forest by expressing, "Nature, for me, is being embraces by the sacred."

Swist describes the process of writing as a tedious one, perhaps beginning, at times, with three pages of poetry and after 80 drafts only taking twelve of those lines as worthwhile.

Motivation to continue writing throughout his life can be attributed somewhat to a friend of Swist's named Robert Francis. Francis served as Swist's mentor and guide throughout the years they spent in each other's company from September 2003 to August 2005. Often encouraging Swist, Francis was, to him, "a father, a grandfather, and a literary mentor." After Francis's death, Swist moved into the cabin where they met weekly and continued his work there. Swist describes the time after Francis's death as filled with an element of quiet and a sense of hope because he could move on from the death. Never forgotten in Swist's mind, Francis served as a predominant role model in Swist's life.

Coming into close ties with people such as Francis, his mother and an unknown person with whom Swist shared a relationship with, Swist uses these figures as further ideas for his poetry. He shares poems written in memory of both is mother, who also died when he was 10 years old, and of Francis. These poems show the versatility in Swist's thoughts, motivations, and types of poetry. Swist accounted for writing between 5,000 and 6,000 haikus while having 900 of those published. His main inspirational writer for these haikus he reveals is John Wills. Swist has also written many books including "The New Life" and "Veils of the Devine."

By filling shelves with literature that helps to relax the course of a day, Swist allows his readers to "Breathe in and breathe out […] poetry forces you to slow down." Swist thinks of poetry as an art form that both lets people meditate and reflect on the words he has written but also it "allows us to think in an age where thinking is hazardous."

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