Poet/professor earns radio honor
GROVE CITY — A poet who is a Clarion University professor will have his latest book highlighted Wednesday on Garrison Keillor's NPR show.
Philip Terman of Grove City, whose book, “Our Portion,” was published this year, said it's a “nice honor” to be chosen by Keillor for the centerpiece of Wednesday's episode of The Writer's Almanac.
Keillor's daily radio show highlights a single poem, usually from a contemporary poet, as well as other literary and historical notes.
Terman teaches creative writing and literature and directs the visiting writer's program at Clarion University. He said he's an avid Writer's Almanac listener when his schedule allows.
Keillor will read the poem “The Summer You Read Proust,” which Terman said is about being in a hammock reading a book.
The piece itself is one of the shorter selections — 14 lines long — from Terman's new collection.
“Our Portion” is a compendium of new and selected poems that Terman said are meant to show readers the spectrum of his work, which includes poems on his Jewish background, environmental and political themes, biographical and historical poems, and pieces on writers and artists themselves.
It draws on work from as far back as 1998, when Terman's first book, “The House of Sages,” was published, and also focuses, at times, on Butler where Terman attends The B'nai Abraham Synagogue.
Terman said his time in Western Pennsylvania and Cleveland, where his father owned a used car dealership, has given him an appreciation for people who work to keep their way of life alive in the face of economic and population decline.
Terman sees the same thing happening at his synagogue, he said, which he muses on in the poem “Bernie Could Have Been My Father.”
“There are some people who keep it alive,” he said, “and without them, it wouldn't exist.”
Terman also reaches back to 1998 with “Ganya,” a love poem he wrote about his wife, gardening and the seasons, for a piece he says typifies his love of what poetry can do a'la Walt Whitman.
“It's the idea of letting the moment inspire you, and also evoking memory,” he said. “You look for the unusual occurrences and that might spur a moment from your past.”
“Our Portion” is Terman's fourth collection of poetry over 17 years. He said the key to such longevity is “to try and keep learning; keep your antenna up. It's about reading too — absorbing yourself in language and great writers.”
Listeners can catch Keillor's reading of Terman on Youngstown State University's WYSU-FM 88.5 at 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
The program also is available on-demand as a podcast at www.writersalmanac.org/podcast
According to the show's website, The Writer's Almanac reaches more than 2.5 million listeners and averages more than 767,000 listeners each day on nearly 400 public radio stations.
