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By: Victoria E. Calvillo
On Mar. 29, Saint Leo hosted another exciting edition of Literature for Lunch. The event is a popular gathering for aspiring writers frequently held on campus, in TECO Hall. The audience experienced an emotional rollercoaster as the speaker read poems from her personal life that were comical and heartbreaking.
Michelle Boissaeu is an accomplished poet and an English professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Boissaeu gave an excellent reading of several poems from a collection of poetry she has written, in honor of women’s history month.
Boissaeu has written five books, winning the Tampa Review Prize in 2016. This resulted in Tampa Press publishing her most recent book, “Among the Gorgons: Poems.”
Her book “Trembling Air” made it as a PEN USA finalist, and her text book “Writing Poems” is in its eighth edition. She has also received two NEA, National Endowment for the Arts, fellowships.
Gianna Russo, English Professor, commented, “’A Sunday in God-Years’ was published in 2009, a fantastic book, that I recently read and annotated very closely for my graduate school and it was wonderful.”
Boissaeu gave a personal introduction, informing that she is the third oldest child of nine. She went on to give an anecdote about her family; explaining that her parents were always yelling her name around the house, to get her to help with her younger siblings. She imitated how her parents sounded calling her name throughout the house, getting a roar of laughter from the audience. She explained that this is the reason that she is not a quiet or shy person. This was proved correct throughout her performance, as she gave a strong and emotional reading of her poems.
Boissaeu started with one of her older books, “Trembling Air.” She read “The Height of Summer,” saying that it was inspired by the feeling of “being in the now.”
Everyone in the room was very engaged, listening to her comical explanations of how some of her poems came to be.
“I liked the way that the poems were very personal and meant a lot to her. You could tell by the way she presented them,” commented Elissa Noblitt, freshman and Professional Writing major.
“Moon at the Mirror” was one of the most inspirational readings Boissaeu gave. She said, “it is about someone who feels beautiful, so they are beautiful.” The depth of the poem is to tell the reader that even though they may not be society’s view of beautiful; if they feel beautiful, then they are beautiful no matter what anyone says.
Boissaeu’s poetry is written from personal travels, heartaches, and inspirations. She appreciates people who society may normally not acknowledge otherwise because they do not conform to their standards.
The event was a success with around 30 people attending. The audience loved the poems, and may have, through the pieces, discovered a new way to look at life.
“’Dogs Ars Poetica’ was my favorite, I thought it was really interesting because I never really thought about dogs and cats as poets before. I also liked how it was from the dog’s point of view and how the dog may see certain things,” said Noblitt.
At the end of the presentation, Boisseau gave a website that people interested in her work can go to. She can be found on Poetry Foundation, containing a short biography about her life, and a list of her work.
