When Marcus Jackson steps to the microphone at the Streetlight Guild this week, he plans to use the moment as an opportunity to celebrate the poetic ancestors who inspired him along the way, including Pablo Neruda, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Yusef Komunyakaa, among others.
“And I’ll probably pick one or more [works] from each of those writers, because especially in some of my earlier work, I couldn’t have done one of those poems without immersing myself in their wisdom … and running through the doors that they opened for us,” said Jackson, who will read alongside Mandy Shunnarah on Friday, April 3, as part of “Rhapsody & Refrain” – Columbus’ 30-week poetry festival. Streetlight Guild (Series begins with Dorian Ham and Paula Lambert on Wednesday, April 1; Click here (or see the full list of participants below.)
Jackson intends to read these influential books as well as some of his new, unpublished poems, several of which are intended to be included in an ongoing book aimed at the fictional reader – a first for the writer, who relished the opportunity to get out of his head from what had been so divisive in the early years of Covid.
“It started with writing these little episodes before the pandemic. … And I was stuck at home, and my son was in kindergarten at the time, so we had a little kid on Zoom, and it was like, ‘I’ve got to expand on this,'” said Jackson, who has since tapped the reporter to do a series of health events. The family tree is very close. “And the background of his family is very detailed in my mind, and some of the people of his family appear in the poems. … But his past is described in my books, and I let some of them appear, and I am stirring up the problems of the past in his poetic pictures of his experiences. fame, and the strong pursuit of fame.”
Still in its early stages, this new collection continues alongside a dual photography/poetry book in which Jackson interweaves his photographs with a series of texts inspired by cityscapes, found objects and artwork. “It was a great way to celebrate the untold people and the places around,” the poet said, as he continued to follow the good news in both books to his own experiences as a father. “It’s difficult now, because everything is expensive, and from the perspective of a parent, it’s like you already know how this movie ends. Inflation will not stop, and resources will continue to decrease, so how do you teach a child to appreciate the things around him?”
Jackson said the idea reflects Dayton’s blue-collar upbringing, describing his family as the type that would squeeze a tube of toothpaste until it was dry and then grab a razor to cut it open and wipe away the residue inside. “And those things are very important to all kinds of people in the world,” he said. “And as a nation, we’re rejecting that now, and we’re throwing money away for nothing.” And it seems to me if I can lift something up with a poem and say, ‘Look how beautiful this simple thing is, and it’s close to you,’ that would make a little bit of a difference. Or at least that’s the hope.
The way Jackson feels is so simple even above the way he uses language. As a poet, Jackson said that he is naturally attracted to brevity, while each subsequent article of the piece serves as a way to pull more barnacles from the spine, the finished piece conveys his intended idea in as few syllables as necessary. Not only is this update something that Jackson has been drawn to as a student of the formula, but he has also noted that it shows his desire not to get involved in “useless political talk and sales” that he sees as prevalent in our society.
While following this love of playing words since childhood, Jackson remembered how his parents, theater actors, would bring him to practice and play, where he sat in the audience and understood how words can be used to convey many feelings and thoughts. “And they often did 20th-century realism, which can be very intense at times,” Jackson said. And maybe I didn’t know it at the time, but I understood how important language is.
These ideas continued to expand in high school, where Jackson wrote for the school newspaper, and later in college, where he took his first poetry assignment under Tim Geiger, now a professor at the University of Toledo. Over the years, Jackson has taken a similar approach to these figures, often using poetic language to serve texts at least informed by the headlines of the day.
“Sometimes you’re going to have fun with this language,” Jackson said. But at the end of the day, I think there’s a responsibility to infuse poetry with a great theme, and relate it to … something that affects the greater good of humanity. they were telling kids hard things about American history from a young age, not just for protection, but to give us a path to action, where we could do a lot of amazing things with that knowledge.”
Rhapsody & Refrain 2026 programme
Wednesday, April 1: Dorian S. Ham & Paula J. Lambert
Thursday, April 2: Ruth Awad and Christina Merritt-Szuch
Friday, April 3rd: Marcus Jackson & Mandy Shunnarah
Saturday 4th April: Hanif Abdurraqib & Dr. Sidney Jones Jr.
Sunday, April 5 (5:00 pm): Tiffany Mariie & Tiffany Lawson
Monday 6th April: Travis McClerking & Diane Callahan
Tuesday, April 7: Steve Abbott & Nathan McDowell
Wednesday, April 8: Louise Robertson & Darren C. Demaree
Thursday, April 9: Julia Kolchinsky & Amy Turn Sharp
Friday, April 10: Bill Kerwin & Zach Hannah
Saturday, April 11: Schyler Butler & Scott Woods
Sunday, April 12 (5:00 pm): Aaron Alsop & Marquita Byars
Monday 13th April: Danny Cain & Chuck Salmons
Tuesday, April 14: Larry Robertson & Karen Scott
Wednesday, April 15: Sayuri Matsuura-Ayers & Sara Abou Rashed
All show at 8pm except Sundays, which are at 5pm as mentioned above.
All shows take place at the Streetlight Guild.
All shows are free thanks to the generous support of the Johnstone Fund, in memory of Mike Stann.
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