TCU Daily Skiff - Award-winning poet speaks of successes

	*Friday, March 05, 2004*

Award-winning poet speaks of successes
The 2001 poet laureate of Texas was the featured speaker at the Creative Writing Awards Program.

By Drew Irwin

The poems and stories we want to write are already inside us, Walt McDonald told the audience at the 2004 Creative Writing Awards Program Thursday.

McDonald, the 2001 poet laureate of Texas, was the keynote speaker at the program, which awarded over $3,000 to student and alumni writers.

McDonald said he came to poetry late, after spending time as a pilot in the Air Force. His first poems “were like letters to the dead,” he said.

“I turned to poetry when nothing else worked,” McDonald said. “I had a hope that writing would somehow show me the way.”

McDonald also read some of his poems to the audience at the program. The poetry he read covered subjects ranging from his wife to baseball.

“Compared to major leaguers, most of us are just scrubs,” McDonald said. “But that’s OK if we have the faith the size of a mustard seed. Because faith gives us the hope that, in baseball terms, we’re going home.”

David Kuhne, associate director of the Center for Writing, said he was very pleased with the event as a whole. He particularly enjoyed the way McDonald read his poetry.

“What I liked the most was how he prefaced every poem with a story from his life,” Kuhne said. “So, he explained the meaning behind the poem before he started reading.”

Eric M. Cire, a sophomore radio-TV-film major, said he connected with the way McDonald described his passion for writing.

“I thought what he had to say was excellent,” Cire said. “I thought he put into words exactly why it is we write and why it is we want to be here.”

The English department also gave out awards for student essays, fiction and poetry. Money for the 25 monetary awards came from various donors and sponsors.

One contest, The Woman’s Wednesday Club Award for Undergraduate Fiction, has been awarded since 1935. Cire won the award for “A Dawning Light.”

“I’m honored to win an award like this,” Cire said. “I appreciate all the time and effort that went into judging it.”

Kuhne said he was particularly pleased with the attendance at the program. Despite poor weather conditions, more than 100 people attended the program at the Dee J. Kelly Alumni and Visitors Center.

Ty Halasz/Staff Photographer

Texas poet laureate Walt McDonald shares wisdom with English department students at the Creative Writing Awards Program Thursday afternoon.

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