Poet of the Day: M. L. Liebler
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M. L. Liebler is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist, and arts organizer. He is the author of 13 books and chapbooks including the award-winning
Wide Awake in Someone Else's Dream
(Wayne State University Press 2008) featuring poems written in and about Russia, Israel, Germany, Alaska, and Detroit.
Wide Awake
won both The Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence and The American Indie Book Award for 2009. He has read and performed his work around the globe and in all 50 US states.
In 2011, Liebler’s groundbreaking anthology
Working Words: Punching the Clock & Kicking Out the James
(Coffee House Press) received a Library of Michigan Notable Book Award. In 2016, he released a new collection of poems entitled
I Want to Be Once
(Wayne State University Press / Made in Michigan Series),
Heaven Was Detroit: An Anthology of Detroit Music Essays from Jazz to Hiphop
(editor) and
Bob Seger's House: An Anthology of Michigan Short Stories
(coeditor with Mike Delp). Both
I Want to Be Once
and
Heaven Was Detroit
won 2017 Library of Michigan Notable Book Awards. Forthcoming recordings and vinyl include
Poetry Score
by M. L. Liebler and Al Kooper and
Howlin at the Moon
by M. L. Liebler and The Coyote Monk Poetry Band.
You can find more about M. L. Liebler, including a list of published works, on
his website
.
Photo by Mandi Wright
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This poet belongs in our classrooms because…
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he is accessible, unique, and alive! When I tell my students that poetry is music and music is poetry, Liebler establishes that truth and makes it count through his various works of poetry set to music.
He belongs not only in the English classroom, but the history classroom as well. My students are drawn to his poetry through themes about which they are curious and excited: the Vietnam War era, the Civil Rights Movement, the political atmosphere of the times, just to name a few. The connections they make to these historical time periods can be brought home, because their parents and grandparents are still around to have conversations centered on the events that are his topics.
His work reminds us of a time in American history that was divisive, scary, and turbulent, y also hopeful for a better future. Liebler's poetry illustrates the angst of a nation, helps us understand a confused, hurting generation trying to find their way in the world and how they humanly coped with it. When I bring this melancholy poetry that is sprinkled with hope into my classroom, my students find ways to relate through their own experiences and the world in which they live. Whether on a personal, national, or global level, their feelings are validated through his poetry and they know that they are not alone, that there is hope.
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Woodstock Nation
Our generation got soul!
Jefferson Airplane, 1968
Nope!
They’re never gonna believe
This some 10-20-30
Or more years from now.
Nope!
They’re never gonna believe
That a half-million young people
Sat around on a big, ole hog farm
In the middle of nowhere
For an entire weekend
Making love, talking peace, and listening
To ubiquitous rock’n’roll.
This shit ain’t never gonna flush
10-20-30 or more
Years from now
With the
Less than Zero
generation.
In the future,
It will be hard for young people
To believe in a world
Where Love was an anthem
Played in a farmer’s field
Away from the cities
And deep in the soul.
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excerpt from Poetry Is Important:
Jigsaw Poetry Reading of a Single Author
(This exercise/invitation would take place close to the beginning of the first trimester/semester of the class. The class would have been studying a poem a day for at least two weeks, and this exercise/invitation serves as a possible portfolio piece and/or oral presentation at the end of the trimester/semester.)
Depending on student dynamics I will either create groups or have students form their own groups of 4–5 (no more than 5). I will distribute materials to each group: 1 sheet of poster paper, one colored marker, one copy of poem. (Each group gets a different poem.)
Students will prepare the activity by taping the poem onto the center of the large poster paper, next they will divide the large paper with the following headings:
Historical Connections, Modern Day Connections, Themes, Other Noticings.
I will then read the poem out loud, and the students will follow along. They need to then silently reread the poem to themselves. Once the readings are over, they turn to their groups and discuss the four topics on the large poster paper, making sure that a recorder is documenting talking points onto the large sheet. I allow 5–7 minutes for discussion and documenting thoughts. I then have the students rotate the poster paper to the next group, and again allow 5–7 minutes for discussion; we will continue the process until all groups have read all poems. They need to add to or elaborate on the noticings from each previous group.
Once all poems have circulated through the room, students need to get a single sticky note and then refer to my anchor chart, “Reading Like a Writer of Poetry,” and mark on their sticky notes their thinking; things they notice, elements of craft, what the author was doing and why they were doing it, what was the occasion and the subject of the poem, or anything from their group discussion they would like to share.
We will return to the class for the whole-class discussion, having students choose one item from their sticky notes to share. They will then add their “sticky note thoughts” to the poetry wall.
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My name is
Geryl Lobert,
and I have been teaching high school English and Social Studies for 19 years for the Chippewa Hills School District in central Michigan. My school is conveniently located halfway between Central Michigan University and Ferris State University. I am currently the President-Elect of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) and a Teacher Consultant through the 2015 Cohort, Red-Cedar/Top-of-the-Mitt Writing Project through the National Writing Project. I was honored in 2017 as MCTE Secondary English Teacher of the Year and NCTE’s Teacher of Excellence.
I am in love with teaching English to my students. I love writing and teaching writing. I am most passionate about literacy and helping students who have lost the love of reading, learn to love reading again.
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