Abram Van Engen, a professor of humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, once said in an interview that
“What matters about poetry is which poems work for you… Not every poem will work for you. Keep pushing on until you find the poem that does work for you – when suddenly you read this turn of phrase in a poem and are moved or challenged or something really resonates.”
I have been fortunate to be good friends since my early 20’s with Douglas A. Sharp, I did not know he was a poet when I first met him at Texas A&M University in the basement of Nagle Hall, which housed some desks for graduate students in economics. He was sitting with his feet propped up on a desk reading the Lord of The Rings. Not long thereafter, Doug returned to his first love – mathematics – in which he earned his master’s degree.
Doug and I got together frequently, as we shared a great love for music. My recollection is that after I left Texas A&M in the fall of 1971 to go to Pullman, Washington to teach economics at Washington State University, I received a letter from Doug that contained a poem, called “For the Players of Night’s Game”. I wrote music to it, and little did I know at the time that I was beginning an approximately 15-year period of songwriting with Doug.
Recently, Doug assembled much of his poetry in a 444-page book called Night Breezes. In what follows I provide pictures of a few of the pages from the first third of his book.
“What matters about poetry is which poems work for you… Not every poem will work for you. Keep pushing on until you find the poem that does work for you – when suddenly you read this turn of phrase in a poem and are moved or challenged or something really resonates.”
I have been fortunate to be good friends since my early 20’s with Douglas A. Sharp, I did not know he was a poet when I first met him at Texas A&M University in the basement of Nagle Hall, which housed some desks for graduate students in economics. He was sitting with his feet propped up on a desk reading the Lord of The Rings. Not long thereafter, Doug returned to his first love – mathematics – in which he earned his master’s degree.
Doug and I got together frequently, as we shared a great love for music. My recollection is that after I left Texas A&M in the fall of 1971 to go to Pullman, Washington to teach economics at Washington State University, I received a letter from Doug that contained a poem, called “For the Players of Night’s Game”. I wrote music to it, and little did I know at the time that I was beginning an approximately 15-year period of songwriting with Doug.
Recently, Doug assembled much of his poetry in a 444-page book called Night Breezes. In what follows I provide pictures of a few of the pages from the first third of his book.
It seems to me that a perfect ending to this small sample is nothing less than the first paragraph of Doug’s introduction to Night Breezes.
Leave a Reply