Poet advises students to follow their bliss
by Bernie Scheffler, ne news editor

    “I believe this is the warmest welcome I’ve ever received at a college campus,” an Arkansas author told students on NE campus last week.

   Award-winning poet Jo McDougall read selections from her latest book Dirt as part of Living Literature, sponsored by the English department.

   The presentation also featured a screening of Emerson County Shaping Dream, a short dramatic film scripted by McDougall’s poems and co-produced by Don Maxwell, Kansas City director.

   “Usually when I come to a college, the students haven’t even read my book. Here, your bookstore is sold out of all its copies of Dirt and has ordered more. My publisher will be very happy,” McDougall joked.

   Antonio Howell, NE English department chair, introduced McDougall to the assembly.

   “We find that her poems contain powerful messages and are inspirational,” he said.

   As a child, McDougall presented her first poem to her father, who framed it and put it on his desk. She attributes that action to motivating and inspiring her to continue writing.

   McDougall, a native of Dewitt, Ark., was first published while in college. Once she received the attention and feedback from that first published work, McDougall said, she was hooked.

   She published her first book in her early 20s.

   McDougall said she strives to make her poetry accessible to anyone, avoiding “academic” poetry.

   “My husband reads every poem I write,” she said. “He’s a very practical man, so I know if it passes the Charles test, then it’s good.”

   Much of McDougall’s poetry deals candidly with the rural area where she grew up, though McDougall says there is nothing special there.

   “There is nothing beautiful about Dewitt, Ark., not one thing,” she said. “But my poems are all deeply rooted in where I grew up, as all writers’ are.”

   McDougall stressed that no matter what one’s background is, he or she has an interesting story to tell.

   “Only you can tell that story like you saw it,” she said.

   Always looking for images, McDougall describes herself as “a metaphor making machine.”

   One member of the audience asked McDougall to name her favorite poem.

   “That’s like asking ‘Which is your favorite child?’” she said.

   When asked why most of Dirt seems to be made up of sad poems, McDougall noted that very few happy poems exist in all of literature.

   “What would we write about if there was no grief? There aren’t many happy poems. Why should there be? If you’re happy, you don’t need to write,” she said. “I have written a few happy poems, but they weren’t very good.”

   McDougall said much of Dirt has an elegiac tone because she was dealing with the grief of losing her daughter, who died of cancer three years ago. She dedicated Dirt in her daughter’s memory.

   “There’s nothing like fear to motivate you,” she said. “We know there’s an end. We know it, but we pretend there isn’t. Otherwise, why would we do anything?”

   McDougall encouraged students to keep writing, especially if it makes them happy.

   “Follow your bliss. It’s necessary; it saves your life. It’s the one thing in your life that nobody can take away from you,” she said.

   I don’t know how people survive without following their bliss.”