I first became acquainted with the Yuyutsu Sharma at a
poetry reading at the Literary Café in Cleveland where I was a local feature
poet. Yuyutsu was a lovely surprise
international guest poet who was invited to read with us along the frozen Lake
Erie Shore. He read before me, and I was
in awe and honored and humbled to follow his lead. I was impressed not only by his poetry, but
his professional demeanor and his obvious following by other poets around the
world.
A year passed.
Once again, on his way back from his travels out West by
train, Yuyutsu appeared in Cleveland, Ohio at Mac’s Backs where he was giving
many of his remarkable writing workshops and readings that he performs all over
the world from New York to California to the Florida Keys and everywhere in
between and beyond. But that night, I
walked down into the basement of that coffeehouse with a belly full of grief
over having recently lost a lost a loved one, and I had no words.
Instead, I concentrated on my goal at hand, and reveled
in my luck to be able to host his visit by securing a reading for him at The
University of Akron/Wayne College where I teach composition and literature. Later
we travelled together in a huge ice and snowstorm to the International Poet’s
Hall in Erie, Pa. where he would be the feature poet.
On the way there, we took a stop in my hometown, Ashtabula,
Ohio and it was there that poet Yuyutsu Sharma, charmed by my small lake town
and its former glory of dock industry and drawbridge history, turned to me
after looking at the barren and frozen waters and encouraged me to revisit my
hometown experience.
It was magical.
I imagined that I might once again visit my lake home town
of beauty and sadness, and from his teachings and poems and encouraging words,
I found my own. Reading Yuyutsu’s poem,
“The Lake Fewa, an Unfinished Poem,” I first became acquainted with his power
of poetic influence in the following lines: “…from the fury of the goddess who created the
lake to avenge the unkind inhabitants of the valley. ..”
These lines moved me greatly. But it wasn’t until we stood together looking at the massive frozen Lake Erie that I imagined that I might once again visit my home town of beauty and sadness. Thus, I was reborn creatively through the power of words, as in the passage from “The Lake Poem,“ where he writes, “….Move towards the root of the lake/serpentine twist of the birth canal…”
These lines moved me greatly. But it wasn’t until we stood together looking at the massive frozen Lake Erie that I imagined that I might once again visit my home town of beauty and sadness. Thus, I was reborn creatively through the power of words, as in the passage from “The Lake Poem,“ where he writes, “….Move towards the root of the lake/serpentine twist of the birth canal…”
In my poem, “Lake Erie: Daughter of Sorrows, “ I broke my
grieving silence and wrote: “Turning my
sorrows into joy, softening my heart, you transform the spirit of all my sister
Lakes.”
For this is Yuyutsu Sharma’s gift to all of us: The rebirth of
creative power.
His writings and teachings transform writers, allowing them to
reach into their own writing dreams and visions. Indeed, Yuyutsu’s work and example has far
reaching effects: From fellow editor and academic David Austell in “Garuda” who
writes “…the regal man-bird rises as high as Om/then falls again, searching for
every evil thing to destroy…”, to “Himalaya” by writer Sharon Aveningo who
writes: “….You are my mule/my companion, my friend/my communal bastard brother/
born of stallion and ass….,” to Chuck Joy’s poem “Mountain Man and Cold Fish,”
where “….Mountain man came stumping down the valley wearing an animal skin,”
Yuyutsu’s poetic influence is great.
Just
like so many of the poems that I and
fellow editor David Austell, and
assistant editors Jen Pezzo and Tracie Morell have had the privilege to
read, his influence on so many others’ creative writing experiences proves to
be life transforming.
Evocations from his own poetic stories and musings and life
teachings, come to us, teach us, inspire us, and reach us from his own home
poetics, creative gifts from the “forehead
of the sky” where he emerges to be with us on his poetry visits and workshops.
I speak not only for myself, but for the editorial board of
the anthology, in saying that we look forward to the continuing adventure as we
traverse together on our continued poetic journey .
Namaste!
