National Poetry Month is a celebration of the poets and poetry in our cultures. In 1996, the Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month in April to promote poetry across the U.S. Today, it
has become the largest literary celebration in the world, marking poetry’s importance in our lives.
The Hawk staff asked Daniel Barry ’23 to learn about what inspired him to become a poet and what poetry means to him.

For you, poetry is … AND/OR poetry is not …

Poetry is a grappling of language. It is a skydiving act taking the reader upstream-downstream vibrantly. It is a medium of short stories. 

I remember, a year before I began to write poetry, I Googled, “other ways to say, ‘I am good.’” By collective acquiescence or other unbecoming means, people adopt the tendency to filter their speech into overused vernacular, until “f—ing” becomes their preferred, habitual adverb and adjective. 

I noticed that I despised this death of language. Each word contains within it an isolated world of meaning, and its astronomy with other worlds constitutes a delicate game of articulatory matrices. 

An uncommon word works wonders in elevating otherwise dull recall-converse. This is the joy of the poet. To answer one question you might have, my favorite way to respond to, “How are you?” is now, “I am alive, to say the least.” I picked it up during a philosophy class from a computer scientist named Anna Marie. I give you free reign to try it and I am certain she would, too. 

The wonder of this response is that you quickly learn how those you are talking with are doing by the way they react.

What determines success for you? What makes you say, “Yes, I got this”?

The adjustment of false perception is crucial. Many an artist has met personal demise through the repetition and belief of self-deprecating mind-chatter. These thoughts float between the minds of every creative spirit, but what is of importance is whether they are clutched and halted amid their travel. 

Affirmations work, undoubtedly. I know that I have touched people with words and spirit, and I know that I will find satisfaction in comforting the outlines of a great many people because already, I find satisfaction in comforting the outlines of a great few. 

In Sanskrit, there is a word, “sankalpa,” which is a solemn vow of the heart and mind; it is a firm, intentional intention. With sankalpas, the mind is made content in present realities by a burning desire to practice art regularly, to know that action has its consequences. 

There is peace in knowing that we have charge over our actions, not the fruits of our actions. The ways paved by a burning desire to enter the dance incrementally are formed naturally.

What do you look for in a good poem? A good poet?

I have an affinity for Emily Dickinson’s idea of the task of the poet, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.” Meaning, the truth is a vast exploration, any small aspect, concept, person or thing could be picked and made the topic of a poem. A great poem provides an angled glimpse of affairs, so that the words are always prepared, always firm, crisp and lush for the beloved reader. In this way, I think, one’s inner landscapes of the world’s outer landscapes should be presented.

Read more of Daniel’s poems on his Instagram @daniel.the.poet

National Poetry Month is a celebration of the poets and poetry in our cultures. In 1996, the Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month in April to promote poetry across the U.S. Today, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, marking poetry’s importance in our lives.

The Hawk staff asked Daniel Barry ’23 to learn about what inspired him to become a poet and what poetry means to him.