The Poetry Bus Tour 2006 started in Seattle Sept. 4, and it will travel from California to Rhode Island, Texas to Montana, and return to Seattle Oct. 27, in an effort to share poetry with anyone who will listen.
"The organizers decided this could be something that could work, and it also sounded like fun," said Travis Nichols, an Ames native and one of the participating poets. "It's about trying to bring poetry to different places and finding poetry in different places."
The tour
Nichols, who graduated from Ames High School in 1997, said this is the first time anything like this has been done with multiple poets and such all-encompassing of stops.
"The organizers came up with poets they want to hear, and I think we got most of them," Nichols said.
The performers include a rotating group of poets who will do different readings of their works in each city.
People pile onto the 40-foot-long Green Tortoise touring bus and listen as poets share their chosen works. The bus also doubles as the residence for the poets and organizers as they travel from city to city.
In Ames
The bus will pull into Ames, an addition promoted by Nichols, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave.
"We were coming from Lincoln, Neb., going to Iowa City and had an extra day," Nichols said. "Ames is a town that I feel, as far as literature went, everyone went to Iowa City ... but (Ames) has great literary community members."
The Ames stop will include seven poets reading their poetry, including Nichols, as well as special guests.
"We had Ted Kooser Day last year, and that was so well received and I have great respect for Ted Kooser, but there are a lot of other poets out there also," said Susan Mills, Nichols' mother and English and reading teacher at Ames Middle School. "I would encourage people to experience other poets as well.
"I think people will enjoy it; they won't be dry readings."
Mills said she plans to attend the event and hopes to go to other stops of the tour to hear her son and others.
"It's great (for Nichols). I think he is making his choices for his life so he can spend his life and earn his money doing what he wants to do," Mills said. "I think this is a wonderful opportunity for him."
Mills said she thinks many people are "closet poets" and could benefit from the tour stop.
"We haven't tapped into ourselves, and I think this might be inspiring for people," she said.
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Showing students that poetry can indeed be a way of life is one reason the bus will also roll into Ames middle and high schools Wednesday, Sept. 13, before leaving for Iowa City.
"I thought it was great. We have the artists in residence; we have the children's art theater ... We're always open to something that is a little different than the regular classroom," Mills said. "I also think it's good for them to see writing poetry and being a poet is a profession; it is a legitimate way people earn their living, pursuing their dream."
Nichols said the poets will offer workshops and writing exercises for students, and students will get a chance to see the bus and hear some of the poets' writing.
Mills said 60 students are signed up for the stop, a capped limit due to space, although more could have been added. Mills said poetry is popular with a "tremendous amount" of students, and the stop will hopefully open up other avenues of poetry for students.
"We hope we can branch out from this visit and do more things with poetry," Mills said.
Mills said books have been published in the past and venues for student readings have been packed by parents and community members.
"I think that's another indication of how much kids like poetry. If you read their poems, they were amazing, and these are seventh-graders," she said.
"Kids feel a lot. They feel a lot about what they see and what they experience, and they like having that avenue to express those feelings."
Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12
Where: Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave.
Cost: Free
Performers: Joshua Beckman, Travis Nichols (Ames native), Matthew Zapruder, Anthony McCann, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Anselm Berrigan, Anne Boyer and special guests.
Area stops
* 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R Streets, Lincoln, Neb.
* 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, Omaha Public Library, 215 S. 15th St., Omaha, Neb..
* 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave., Ames.
* 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, Ames Public Schools.
* 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City.
* 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, Sanctuary Pub, 405 S. Gilbert St., Iowa City.
* 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, Walker Arts Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.
Inspirational
By Travis Nichols
The verse tribe doesn't need you.
Your parents and junior high need you.
They need you to show them the graves
we dug with silver spades, the frozen rivers
we've heard voices from and the happy
happy love we've found in space.
But you stay up well past morning with the sentences
they should have heard us in - the dream of little boats -
while my parents and junior high crest full into their days
utterly unimpressed by our news of how my teacher
laid down his hammer, laid down his hammer and cried. O Mom,
Dad, Ken, Caity, Mrs. Freed and Mr. Johnson, I'm sorry.
An oblivious past of perfect hair waits to be written
and I keep looking at my watch
though I don't remember when I began.
Christopher Weishaar can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 353, or cweishaar@amestrib.com.
