Political poetry, an outlet for English Department

Lamar University’s Department of English faculty and students continue to work through the COVID-19 crisis by celebrating their dedication to poetry.   

LU poets Jerry Bradley, Paola Brinkley, Jesse Doiron, Casey Ford, Katherine Hoerth, and Gretchen Johnson arePolitical Poetry participating in an online journal to encourage poetic political dialogue on an online journal, TX Poetry Ballots.

Laurence Musgrove, San Angelo State University, created the journal as an outlet for expression during the election and invited, “Texas writers to submit poems they wish could accompany their ballots on the occasion of the 2020 general elections in the United States.”

In her poem, “Mother-Daughter Bonding at the Polls,” graduating senior Paola Brinkley, documents her first time to vote and her mother’s, a new U.S. citizen. Jesse Doiron, a professor of English, reflects on natures harmony while neighbors disdain one another because of political differences in “Between the Trees.” And Professor of English and the Leland Best Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Jerry Bradley, faces the dread and duty of voting in, “Exorcising My Right To Vote.”

“LU faculty and students continue to defy the pandemic by reaching well beyond our campus to represent the literary arts in Texas,” said Jesse Doiron.

Student and Faculty Poems on TX Poetry Ballots
Paola Brinkley: Mother-Daughter Bonding at the Polls
Jerry Bradley: Exorcising My Right to Vote
Jesse Doiron: The Trees Between
Casey Ford: Kavod
Katherine Hoerth: Inauguration, 2017
Gretchen Johnson: Texas Politician