Area poet releases collected work

"People stop along the highway to outline names in rock against the alkali sand and salt. A rock might anchor a name in this wind and shifting light."

Barbara Smith read these lines from her poem "Putting a Name on It" to a room full of people at Western Wyoming Community College last Friday night. The poem is also the namesake of Smith's newly released book - her first full-length poetry collection.

Smith taught at Western for 38 years, was chair of the Humanities Division, and directed the Wesswick Lecture Series in the Arts and Education, bringing almost 100 visiting writers to campus, including poet Allen Ginsberg, author of "Howl."

"And now she's made it to be one of those interesting presentations in the Wesswick series," Chris Propst, a current professor at Western, said as he was introducing Smith before her public poetry reading. The reading was a part of the visiting writers series as well as a release party for "Putting a Name on It."

Smith is a widely-published poet who has received multiple awards. She believes she may be the only person who has had their work published in poetry anthologies for both Wyoming and Montana. However, she has never put together a collection of her own poetry until now.

"I sort of gave up the idea of publishing my own book several years ago," Smith said, explaining she'd heard writers talk about how hard it is to publish a poetry collection.

While she sent things off a few times without much luck, she's grateful the book didn't come together until now, because it's even better now than it could have been.

Smith gives much of the credit for the book becoming a reality to Rick Kempa, the man behind Deep Wild Press and the editor and publisher of "Putting a Name on It." The two taught together at Western for many years, and Kempa has always been a supporter of Smith's poetry.

"I've been telling her she should publish a book for at least 30 years," Kempa said.

Smith thanked Kempa for not only giving her the push to finally put the book together, but helping her edit and organize them into their final form.

"I thought I would just gather up all these poems and I would send them to him and that'd be the end of it," Smith said, adding a drawn-out "no."

Smith and Kempa worked to group poems written across the span of 50 years into categories. Although each poem is distinct, and Smith wondered how well some of the older poems and newer poems would fit together, they ultimately came up with five sections to the book where poems are organized based on their themes.

"It took us about a year to pull it together," Kempa explained, adding how working on the collection was a very satisfying process of "working closely together with her and pruning and honing and organizing and revising. And voila."

Having a published book of poetry makes the poems more than the sum of their parts, makes them more durable and lasting, and reflects the life and creativity of the poet, according to Kempa, so he was happy to get Smith's book "out there where it belongs." He also believes her poetry is "some of the best work coming out of this region," and said she is a voice for the area and the people in it.

The poetry of "Putting a Name on It" deals largely with stories of the high plains of the West, from Smith's own life in the boom and bust town of Rock Springs to the lives of her multi-generational family of pioneers and homesteaders.

While many poems deal with the history of the area and real people, Smith is quick to point out to critics not all the details line up perfectly with exact facts. She explained all writing is shaped, and poems come out of images and ideas.

"Poets don't always tell the truth," Smith noted. "They tell a greater truth."

While her poems are often a conglomeration of ideas and events, Smiths still hopes they provide feelings and concepts readers can connect with, relate to and learn from.

"When I was in college, I wrote poems that I thoroughly intended no one to understand," Smith said, adding she eventually got to the place where she understood how Marvin Bell, one of her workshop teachers, felt when he said he wanted to mean something. "I wanted people to understand what I was talking about."

Smith's poems provide relatable stories of real life, real people, and all the difficulties that come with change. And now Smith is excited those poems can be together in one place, and she hopes people will enjoy it.

"I am so tickled about getting this book," she said.

"Putting a Name on It" is available to purchase through deepwildjournal.com and Amazon.com. Those interested in an autographed copy can email barbarasmithm46@gmail.com.