Su Smallen and Tom Hennen

Two weeks ago (November 19th to be exact), I headed over to Common Good Books to listen to a poetry reading by Su Smallen and Tom Hennen. Both were showcasing their most recent books, "Buddha, Proof" and "Darkness Sticks to Everything", respectively.

 

The first to read from her new book was Ms. Smallen, where she jumped into her poems right away. Each one was centered around Buddha as an every day average guy. The first poem she read from was entitled "Buddha, Barbie", and depicted a friendship between Buddha and a Barbie doll as if she were a real person. Smallen described how Buddha would teach Barbie to meditate, while she would train him in a workout class. The poem discussed how unsettling it was to be in the others realm but how they secretly longed for the others life style. Many of the poem depicted Buddha as an average Joe while still incorporating Buddhist philosophies and beliefs. One poem exemplifies this, entitled "Buddha, Target". It discusses how although Buddhism emphasizes that suffering comes from material desires, Target is still full of such amazing, wonderful things to buy. Two of my favorite poems that Smallen read were entitled "Buddha, Butterfly" and "Buddha, Cheerios", which drifted away from the more playful tone present in the rest of her poems.

The tone of the poems are very different from each other. In "Buddha, Butterfly" I was particularly intrigued by the image of a "storm-proof butterfly". The idea of Buddha holding up a little monarch butterfly and sheltering him from the rain is both comforting and endearing. On the other hand, "Buddha, Cheerios" is much darker. It contrasts the significance of cheerios for these two children, one associating it with bird noises and her fathers face, the other with the recent death of his dog. As Buddha pours the cereal into his bowl, Smallen describes the Cheerios as "small wheels of joy and suffering" that land in the bowl and "nestle in its emptiness", all qualities in Buddhist philosophy.

I was a fan of Su Smallen's presentation. Her voice was soft and light, almost like she was telling a story to a group of elementary school kids, but not demeaning. It was almost nostalgic, simple stories being read to you about Buddha at a baseball game or in Las Vegas with Barbie, but all with underlying Buddhist messages. Even in the darker, sadder poems like "Buddha, Cheerios", they poems were still very nice to listen, and the darker poems actually worked well to bring a mix of differently toned poems to the book.

Next to read was Tom Hennen, who I immediately liked as soon as he stepped up to the podium. He introduced his poems as being about the country and the prairie where he spent a lot of his time while working. There were so many lines that resonated with me, and his soft, outdoorsy old guy voice added to the whole experience. Before some of the poems, he would add little anecdotes, about where the inspiration for a certain poem had come from or what memory of being out on the prairie had spurred him to write the poem. In one poem, he described a bird as having "wings thin as gold foil" which struck up a beautiful image for me. The same feeling arose after his line, "The Minnesota prairie has never heard of free will". His descriptions of the prairie and of the Minnesota landscape, especially in winter, is very brief and simple, but gets right down to the heart of what the experience is like. Two of my absolute favorite poems were "Finding Horse Skulls on a Day That Smelled of Flowers" and "When Storms Come".

 

I loved the poem about horse skulls, even though it was such a simple poem. The line "The other one I didn't move" really resonated with me. It reminded me of the refusal to disturb a grave site, yet with overturning the first skull, it reveals the life that continues on. I also really enjoyed the lines "Making the scent of the earth visible" and "As though the horses were dreaming in the spring afternoon". They are such unusual ways of describing a horse skull in the sun and the grass growing around it, and yet it makes perfect sense. These two lines are great examples of what I love about Hennen's poetry. In the second poem, "When Storms Come", my favorite part of this whole prose poem is definitely the last line: "In the barn doorway we don't move, thinking we won't be seen, while the earth rocks, and the lightening seeks to touch--like a tap on the shoulder--its next partner for the dance." I love the way that Hennen describes the lightening as if tapping the earth's shoulder to ask it to join it on the dance floor. It gives the lightening a gentlemanly quality, not often seen when describing lightening; usually lightening is described in a wild and crazy way, but Hennen takes it in the other direction. Another line I really liked was: "Then all the things made by humans become small, and all the things we have learned take up almost no room at all." He describes the feeling so many have when standing in awe of nature. There is this moment where you are so infinitesimally small and brief, as quick here and gone as the lightening flash is.

At the end of the session, Su and Tom described how they got their inspiration to write poetry. Su said that in grad school she was given an assignment to write about two things next to each other on a big wheel, one of which was Buddha. Tom told the audience how he would do field research and work from spring until fall on the prairie, before being laid off in the winter where he would write poems based on his experiences he had written down in his journal.

I also found it sweet how, at the beginning of her presentation, Su and Tom had met each other through their dogs wanting to be friends and through the mutual love of their pets, but hadn't known that the other person was a poet. It wasn't till later while chatting that they had more in common than just their dogs. I loved how in real life these two poets are very good friends. 

I would highly recommend both Su Smallen and Tom Hennen to anyone with even the slightest interest in poetry. Su's is more lighthearted and central to a main theme of Buddha and Buddhism in everyday situations. Tom's focuses more on nature and life on the Minnesota prairie, a lot of it taking place in winter, and will really resonate with any Minnesotan.  This is the kind of poetry that is really accessible by anyone. It's simple, but powerful, and very enjoyable to read and listen to. I would highly recommend both of these poets to anyone, even if they're just getting into the world of poetry.