Poet Laureate Marshall explains it all tonight in Otis Orchards

Above: Photo by Amy Sinisterra

Poetry can be a tricky discipline. A quick online search (thank you Google) gave me two illustrative quotes:

This one is from Robert Frost: "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."

This one is from Marianne Moore: "Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads."

Quite a difference in tone, eh? But not necessarily meaning. The key to understanding poetry is in finding the right teacher. And few teachers I know are better qualified to explain the rhyme (or non-rhymes) and reason of poetry than Tod Marshall.

Marshall, of course, is the reigning Washington State Poet Laureate (through 2018). But he is better known locally as a professor of English at Gonzaga University, where he is Director of Writing Concentration. He is the author of five poetry collections, the latest of which is "Bugle."

So if you want to get a feel for what Marshall thinks of poetry, then you might want to show up at 6:30 tonight at the Otis Orchards Library to experience an event titled "Exploring Poetry With Tod Marshall." The "atmosphere" promises to be "casual."

And you never know. You just might learn how to separate the gardens from the toads.