The Spire

Molly Landis ’27

Staff Writer

Local poet J.D. Scrimgeour visited campus on Thursday, September 22 to speak to students about his work and writing. To begin, he highlighted poet Hai Zi’s work, translated between Mandarin and English, showing just how important word choice is when working in two different languages with different ways of expressing things. Students examined Hai Zi’s translation, originally entitled “Facing the Ocean: Spring’s Warm and Flowers Bloom,” and a translation by another poet, looking for the differences between the two and attempting to determine which word choice felt better in the translated versions of the poem. Students also had the opportunity to read Scrimgeour’s translation, seeing how he interprets the poem in his own way. He has been learning Mandarin for a couple of years now and “recommend[s] that everyone try to learn languages.” He said that learning Mandarin “helped [him] develop as a writer because it made [him] go back and examine the basic blocks of syntax and think about how [he] could use a stripped won vocabulary to make art.” Perhaps more importantly, Scrimgeour notes that “it helped [him] develop as a person.” Scrimgeour wrote his own book of translated poems, titled Banana Bread, in both Mandarin and English about his experience during the pandemic.

As the craft talk continued, students took part in writing their own poems. They were given 107 words to write a poem with. These 107 words come from a children’s book which is used to teach kids to recognize words. Using only specific words is a challenge. Being restrained to these certain words can make it difficult to compose a poem, yet it also helps to give students a starting point in their writing. Molly Brewer ‘27 says, “It helped me get out of my comfort zone. I’m always reserved about writing poetry, but he helped us to explore our abilities.” This exercise helped students to find a starting point and begin to figure out where they can go now with their writing. 

When asked what his biggest challenge is when writing, Scrimgeour said that it was “to commit to actually writing.” Comparing it to exercising, he said that “it can be hard to get started, but I feel better if I do it.” Many of Scrimgeour’s poems are related to his hometown. He is from Salem, and in one of his other poetry collections, he writes a lot about living there. He says he is interested in that history because “one of [his] ancestors was killed for being a witch and another sat on the jury that found her guilty.” He goes on to say that “[he] is interested in how the city is a place where cultures and social classes intersect, and that part of its history, and its present is that it has always had an immigrant community.” Scrimgeour likes that “[he] can go to the park near [his] house and meet all kinds of people.”