by Sahana C.

National Poetry Month blossoms with the Spring. This year, we’re lucky enough to be celebrating all month long, and especially with the 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award Winner and 2023-24 HoCoPoLitSo Writer in Residence, Hayes Davis.

Be sure to register for Hayes Davis’ workshop, Beautiful Objects and Unbridled Joy on Saturday, April 13 from 1 – 2 pm, and come back to the Savage Branch in two weeks to turn your creations into self-published booklets at our Poetry Zine Workshop! For even more, check out the library calendar for poetry events happening throughout the month at HCLS. Happy writing!

Hayes Davis is the author of Let Our Eyes Linger (Poetry Mutual Press). He is currently serving as the Howard County (MD) Poetry and Literature Society Writer in Residence. His work has appeared in New England Review, Mom Egg Review, and several anthologies. He was a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows. An education administrator and English teacher, he lives in Silver Spring with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis.

Here’s Hayes, in his own words, talking a little bit about his process, poetry, and what brings him joy!

What inspires you to write? 
Lots of things inspire me, most of them related to being human and living in the world as I do. I am a biracial man, a biracial Black man, a parent, a school administrator, a teacher, a parent of school age children, a stutterer, a lover of nature. All of those different roles have influenced my work during my career, and some of them are particularly present both in my first book and my second manuscript.

As a poet and a teacher, what resources do you think are the most important for aspiring poets? Is there any advice you would like to share? 
The number one thing I say to young writers is “You have to read.” If you’re going to call yourself a poet, you have to have some knowledge of what poetry was in the world before you started writing. I am often asked, “What/who is in your poetic lineage?” or “Who do you list as influences?” A poet who can’t answer those questions hasn’t been doing the work of a poet.

Is there a particular poet, poem, or collection that helped shape your writing and thinking? 
Three of the poets I read earliest were Quincy Troupe and Lucille Clifton. I would say the main influence they had on my work was the straight-forwardness of their language. I believe in plain-spoken poetry, that is, work that doesn’t obscure its meaning but still rewards multiple readings and works on multiple levels. Later, I became a fan of Linda Pastan, Cornelius Eady. 

What themes or subjects motivate you to write? 
My first book is a lot about being a parent, being a teacher, and to a lesser extent stuttering. My second manuscript focuses more on the stuttering, and on parenting in a different way–trying to live into a different mode of parenting than I inhabited early on. I’ve also written, at this point, far more poems about nature than I thought I ever would. In some ways that’s a reflection on the pandemic, which slowed me down enough and made me stressed out enough to take even more joy in the natural beauty that surrounds me at home and now where I work (Sandy Spring Friends School), which sits on 140 acres of land, much of it wooded. 

And finally, the theme of the workshop you’ll be running at Savage is “Beautiful Objects and Unbridled Joy”. What’s one thing that’s bringing you joy today? 
Building on my last answer, the sky brings me joy many days, whether because of the brilliant cobalt that accompanies a cloudless day, or the endless variety of clouds that complement that blue. The expressions of beauty of which humanity is capable bring me joy–music, visual art, movies–I love looking at how other people see our world and process it artistically. 

Sahana is an Instructor and Research Specialist at the Savage Branch. They enjoy adding books to their “want to read” list despite having a mountain of books waiting for them already.