By Dominic Arthur, Senior Reporter.
If you haven’t noticed, Delta College has a club dedicated to bringing all of the community’s poets together under one roof. The student-run organization, Night Garden Poetry Club, is advised by English Professor, Dr. Mark Brown, and run by club president and Liberal Arts and Science student, Thomas Dunn.
The organization got its start based off of a short poem by Tom Whalen called “Why I Hate the Prose Poem” in the fall of 2006 by Associate English Professor, JodiAnn Stevenson, the creator of the club and former faculty advisor of 8 years, who knew the demand for a community of poets to write, share, and read was high amongst the college’s students.
Stevenson says the poem’s funny, sad and surprising nature, her students were drawn to it.
“A handful of those students saw that last line ‘in my spare time, I am cultivating a night garden’ as symbolic of what a poet does,” says Stevenson.
Brown says that having the Night Garden Poetry Club allows poets and lovers of poetry the opportunity to have a comfortable place where they can “cultivate this rare, precious thing with other like-minded people.”
“It’s this idea that poetry is this thing we cultivate, sometimes on our own, but certainly in the private, quiet parts of our lives,” says Brown. “Poetry is often out of the spotlight, off in the shadows. Even though everything in the world belongs in poetry, most of the world doesn’t care about it.”
Currently, the club has around six members meeting every Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Founders Hall for an hour or two, depending on what they’re planning. The club meets weekly during the fall and winter semesters to work on new poems, plan activities and service projects, and workshop with one another on their poetry, as they’re often preparing for open-mic readings. Every winter semester, the club publishes a short collection of poetry by Night Garden members. Brown says the group publishes around a couple hundred of them, and that they’re “cool little artifacts meant to showcase the talent of [their] members.”
Night Garden President, Thomas Dunn, has been part of the club since 2014, and he believes that you don’t have to be an “elite writer” to join the club, as the group welcomes all kinds of writers and styles.
“If you like Sonnets and Haiku – that’s awesome. If you’re more into spoken word and Hip-Hop, that’s cool too! The thing I love about the group is that we’re open to a lot of styles.”
Dunn says that one of the things he looks forward to is reaching out to high school students to host workshops and open mics for younger people. He says that Night Garden means a lot to him because it made him realize that everybody’s voice is important.
“You don’t have to go through terrible things or be in love [to write poetry]. The way everyone views the world is interesting to me and I think this club was a huge factor in making me believe that.”
Last year, Night Garden successfully brought in poet Robert Fanning from Central Michigan University to read and sign copies of his books “The Seed Thieves” and “American Prophet.” The club is open to all students on campus that are interested and enthusiastic about poetry.
“The club is for anyone – beginner or veteran – who loves to write and values poetry,” says Brown. “You don’t have to know a lot about writing or poetry.”
Students looking to join Night Garden Poetry can find the club on Facebook by searching “Delta Night Garden Poetry Club.” There, you can network with other poets and find out about meetings, readings and other activities that the club is planning.
Contact club advisor Mark Brown by email at markbrown@delta.edu or by calling 989-686-9024. You can also contact the club’s president, Thomas Dunn, at thomasdunn@delta.edu.