Whether spoken or written, poetry can be a powerful tool to inspire, connect and reflect on the human condition. As Bob Reitman’s upcoming album 12th House showcases his return to spoken word poetry, WUWM wanted to connect three different generations of poets to learn more about what the practice means to them and to share their work with each other.
The poets roundtable is led by lifelong Millwaukeean, poet and musician Bryon Cherry. His poems collapse distinctions between the domestic and the cosmic, the sacred and absurd, political and dream logic. He is the author of three chapbooks, including ‘death moan’ published by Willow Books (Detroit). Cherry is currently working on a full-length manuscript titled “Chaos Medicine."
Joining Cherry is Jodie Jasim, an Iraqi-American poet, visual artist, advocate and the current Milwaukee Youth Poet Laureate. Jasim's work is rooted in passion, and explores the intersection of her two conflicting identities: an Iraqi immigrant daughter and an American teenage girl. Jasim's poetry flourishes from her visual art practice, as she wanted to express and expand her work beyond a typical artist statement. Through her poetic practice, Jasim hopes to elicit empathy and allow others to understand the complexities of an Arab American identity.
And lastly, there’s Bob Reitman. While he’s best known for his long career in radio, Reitman has been practicing poetry for most of his life. His early radio career began with a poetry program Sense Waves on WUWM, which was a student-run station on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus during the 60s. Reitman's first spoken word album that combined his love of poetry and music, The Eleventh House, came out in 1972. 54 years later, Reitman returns with a collection of 16 poems for 12th House.
When discussing how they all first felt drawn to poetry, Reitman says it's "kind of an odd sensation."
"It kind of bursts out of you. I guess the big thing is if something dramatic can happen to you ... you can't sit down and write the poem right away. You have to pull back and be objective about a subjective thing, and that's what's happened to me," he explains.
Jasim says she never considered herself a poet until recently. "I always journaled, and I always wrote, and I realized it sounded poetic in a way. And I decided to take up the opportunity of Milwaukee Youth Poet Laureate and only within the past few three or four months I’ve been showing my poetry to other people," she notes.
"Being able to express your thoughts in a different form for other people to understand [is helpful], because sometimes it's hard to just say things objectively, like how I'm feeling or kind of telling my story. So it feels kind of cathartic to be able to write poetry," Jasim adds.
Creating visual art also gives Jasim a similar feeling of expression when she's writing poetry. For Cherry, music serves as a similar complimentary outlet.
"Up until really recently, everybody would always ask, how do [music and poetry] tie in? I didn't feel tied in at all, but now I can see that ideas that formulate through the poems, whether it's philosophically or rhythmically and stuff, infiltrate into the music in a lot of neat ways that kind of expand upon what it would be," he explains.
"Because poetry slows me down, I think, in a lotta ways," adds Cherry. "It allows me to think expansively about the world ... I like to write pop soul tunes mostly, you know, it's like, there's a structure that's constricting, but it's constricting in a good way that's different than most of the free verse that I write in poetry."
As the three poets shared their work with one another in studio, Reitman emphasizes to keep up the practice of sharing their work publicly.
"When you read in the front of the people, it's different. I think you're more critical of yourself and you try and sharpen it a little bit. But when you put those words out there and there's people sitting there listening to you, that's quite the experience — that's the magic of poetry," he says.
Bryon Cherry and Jodie Jasim will be reciting their poetry for 12th House in Twilight, a special launch celebration at the Pabst Theater bringing together local performers and artists to honor Bob Reitman’s lasting impact on Milwaukee’s music and radio community. You can find more information about the show and get your tickets here.
