Photo courtesy of Boswell Books
At its finest, poetry has the uncanny ability to evoke crystal-clear visual imagery in its exploration of our shared humanity. For UW-Whitewater professor emeritus DeWitt Clinton, the author of six chapbooks and two previous full-length books of poetry, the vivid pictures he has created for readers have spanned from the simple artfulness of a yoga pose to the sheer terror of a Vietnam War battle.
A new collection of his poems uses the landscape of contemporary Milwaukee as its backdrop to paint an original picture of the city and its ever-changing seasons. In By a Lake Near a Moon: Fishing with the Chinese Masters, Clinton adapts the works of classic Chinese masters to spin evocative tales set on the shores of Lake Michigan in modern Wisconsin. By tweaking classical lyrics and universal themes based on the 1971 translation of Chinese poetry by Kenneth Rexroth (One Hundred Poems from the Chinese), this collection of 114 poems reinterprets ancient wisdom to explore a variety of profoundly modern American experiences through a uniquely Midwestern lens. Like an ancient Chinese sage, the author uses precise and accessible language to inspire renewed life and energy into the local landscape of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan.
Clinton, a Shorewood resident, will read poems from his new collection and chat with poetry editor Sylvia Cavanaugh in a Nov. 11 Zoom virtual event sponsored by Boswell Books. Interested attendees can register for free at boswellbooks.com.
To read more book previews and reviews, click here.
To read more articles by Jenni Herrick, click here.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
