On Friday, April 24, the Bowers Writers House held an afternoon craft talk with poet Gregory Djanikian. He is the director of the creative writing program for undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania.

Djanikian began by charting his early life and how it lead to a career in poetry. He enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania not knowing what he wanted to do. He chose architecture because it was a professional field that required creativity.

However, his academic career changed when he took a creative writing class with his professor, Gerald Meyers. Meyers ignited his love of poetry, causing Djanikian to switch majors. Due to his early exposure, he wrote overly flowery imagery reminiscent of 19th century poetry.

Meyers mentored Djanikian in his poetry career by taking him to breakfast every Saturday morning at White Castle. They would spend the morning talking about poetry. Meyers introduced him to American contemporary poets like Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Galway Kinell, whereas he was used to reading John Keats and William Wordsworth.

After becoming versed in contemporary poetry, he gained a formal foundation in versification. He learned about different poetic forms, poetic feet and meter. He learned about forms like ballads and sonnets. Meyers assigned him tasks like writing lines of iambic pentameter, but to change the poetic feet in particular lines and in particular places. Djanikian would have done things like inserting a trochee in the third foot of the second line, beginning a line with an anapest or ending the line with a spondee.

Djanikian’s concentration became focused on the rhythm of the poem. He didn’t necessarily think about the meaning. He believes that if you focus too much on the meaning, then it becomes too strained and artificial. He exemplified the idea with a story about the Andromeda Galaxy. The cones of the eye cannot allow the viewer to directly look at the galaxy, it can only be viewed through peripheral vision. So, with poetry, to talk about love — write about a rug, to talk about death — write about the sidewalk. This peripheral approach allows the reader to stay engaged with the piece, because they are actively thinking about with what they are presented.

Then, he went back to classic poetry to gain a formal foundation in versification.

He was able to learn things like ballads and sonnets and write in lines of iambic pentameter.

He believes that poems should find the mystery of life; however, he believes that they should get close to the truth, but not answer it. An alternative is to ask a question that can never be answered. If the question gets answered, then the question wasn’t complex enough. He describes this idea as “feeling the crevices” of things.

When he’s not teaching, his process is write from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. He will write a line and let it lead him to the next line. He doesn’t believe in waiting for inspiration for a reason to write. He believes inspiration comes to him during his daily writings when he is playing with language. It allows the mind to stay connected to rhythm and imagery.