Texas Tech English professor John Poch has authored his fifth collection of poems. ‘Texases’ pays homage to and at times critiques the Lone Star State he’s called home for more than 20 years. He writes about the state’s geography and happenings, and its people in all but a few of its distinctive region.
Poch, who teaches mostly poetry but also literature and creative writing, says the title made sense to him.
“I thought well there are many different kinds of Texases and I thought well that word is an interesting word. I don’t think people use that specifically and if anybody is ever looking for my book, that word, I’ll kind of own it. So, I just decided I’m going to stick with that,” Poch says. “And everybody that sees it, I haven’t had anybody say ‘oh that’s a horrible title.’ Everybody is like, oh that’s a great title, because it’s true. Mileage-wise, it’s monstrously huge and the change in geography, the change in people.”
The book presents sonnets, prose poems, villanelles and formal verse, which uses rhyme and also meter. Poch wrote many of the poems years ago, including three he penned while in Italy. He began putting together this collection six years ago after realizing how many poems he’d written about Texas. “Sometimes poems come quickly, within a few weeks really if I’m really, really luck. And sometimes it’ll be 19 years,” he says.
One poem spotlights Texas’ culinary staple. ‘Sugar Land Barbecue’ begins with these lines:
‘The Italian word for picnic is picnic.//The same in Spanish, in French, in Japanese.//What else would you call it?//In Texas we call it a barbecue and spell it with three consonants.’
American poet e.e. cummings wrote, “write poetry, for God's sake, it's the only thing that matters.” Posh feels similarly but doesn’t think others need to.
“Poetry helps us access a deeper life. I think most people don’t want it. I can’t determine whether most people need it or not. I wish they needed it. I wish they wanted it. It’s always been a thing that’s been on the periphery.”
Poch opens another of the book’s poems, ‘Off the Grid,’ with how former Gov. Rick Perry said he confronted a coyote while jogging near his home several years ago.
‘While our governor jogs just down the road//with a pistol for coyotes, I like the outdoors//for the decorated meadowlark on the barbed wire//above three horse cripplers.// He teaches me valor in patience across the cirrus-strewn morning.
Poch’s talent, like most published and standout poets, lies in deft attention. Poch says poets notice what often goes unseen by others.
“We see things other people don’t see. We look more closely. Get out your microscope as a poet, metaphorically. Get out your telescope. I was mentioning to them that Milton is really great at this, looking at constellations and then zooming in on a piece of bread or something small—moving between that kind of scope. But really giving us poems that say look at this and we say yeah I’ve always seen that but I’ve never knew that there were those kinds of words for that,” Poch says.
Before he became a poet – this is his fifth collection _ Posh studied physics and nuclear engineering, both of which involve plenty of math, which he says has proved beneficial in writing poetry.
“Certainly I think that my writing is mathematical. I write a lot in form. And so I’m very much aware of symmetrical and mathematical patterns in my writing. That’s a huge advantage of writing for me. I think most poets, their brain kind of turns off when it come to the math aspect of a poem.
Poch will read from ‘Texases’ at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday in Auditorium 1 in the English and Philosophy building. Afterward, he’ll do a short Question and Answer session, then sign copies of his book. It’s also available through online retailers.