EVERGREEN
- DOUGLAS KAHN
EVERGREEN
- DOUGLAS KAHN
The moment I decided to become a writer occurred during my first few weeks at Evergreen when I read a poem in a creative writing class taught by Pete Sinclair. The poem was a conflation of the tales of Noah and Columbus, dead-pan humor, bad puns, etc. I was very nervous, my voice shaking, and the fact that no one was laughing didn't ease my worries at all. The room was totally silent. I look around a the faces-of course, we were sitting in a big circle, all of them confused. But then I looked at Pete. He too was silent, trying to hide tears of laughter as they were rolling down his cheeks. That was good enough for me.
After that I went on to join a group of other poets. We met nearly every week and grew very close, although we were all very different. We called ourselves the Delphi Valley poets and put out a couple issues of the Delphi Valley Review. We were a wild bunch, various substances, running naked in the snow, strong love and straighforward criticism, and some inspired insights into living. We weren't really attached to any faculty members, but that was the beauty of the place. Raw independence was encouraged, it was the unstated goal.