artists

My mourning is quiet, stealthy like the pause before bad news. An inherited trait near as I can tell. All the men in my line are instinctually stoic & hidden—brackish bodies, damned at the gates.

My last uncle just passed away, also of cancer, and with my brother Tyrone I discuss this too as inheritance— annual X-rays to hunt what would prey on us. In “Homecoming: Rich Square, N.C.,” he writes:

My mother-in-law had never seen a cotton field up close, this visit she threw open the door before I even got to a good stop, went elbow deep and picked one tuft clean and good, nervous the landowner might see her working his soil and pick up a shotgun, noticed the blood on her fingers, rubbed them pink, and was quiet the rest of the way home. His poetry is intelligent, yet easy to access. Performance poetry, he says, is by nature often more accessible than page poetry. You have to be able to “get it” when you first hear it.

To anyone who thinks poetry is impenetrable, Ward has this to say: “If you listen to music, you like poetry. If you watch TV shows that are really well-crafted, you like poetry.”

Poetry is for everyone, and he’s out to demonstrate that during his tenure as poet laureate. For instance, he has a very democratic idea of what makes for good poetry:

A good poem, he says, is one that moves you.

“If you are drawn to it, and if it has impacted and affected you, who am I or anyone else to say that it's not good?” he asks. “Good is such a subjective word.”

Charlotte’s new chief poetry officer is as humble as he is talented. “I am not silly enough to believe that being a poet laureate makes you the best,” he says as our interview concludes. “We have so many amazing poets — both page and stage — here. I'm just looking for ways to partner, ways to amplify, ways to accelerate. I don't need to reinvent the wheel; I don’t have to create a bunch of new events. I plan to partner with people and organizations who are already doing great things.” SP

Learn more about Charlotte’s first poet laureate at his website, jwardpoetry.com. Or check out his book of poetry, Sing Me A Lesser Wound.

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