Rowan Ricardo Phillips, a Presidential Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Stony Brook University, discussed the enduring significance of poetry during a recent Provost Spotlight Talk. The event, held on September 25, was moderated by Stony Brook Provost Carl Lejuez.
Lejuez opened the discussion by praising Phillips’ impact as an educator and writer. “Rowan is truly a beloved professor and his work teaches us that poetry has an incredible power to help us see and understand things differently, to harness the wildly different forces of emotion and language to create something that is uniquely capable of revealing profound truths,” said Lejuez. “He’s a Stony Brook scholar who creates beauty unlike anyone else.”
Phillips addressed the ambiguity inherent in questioning poetry’s value. “When you title a talk ‘Why Poetry?’ you’re already in trouble,” he said. “The phrase doesn’t stand still and won’t behave. Spoken one way, it’s a skeptic’s question. Said another way, it’s a believer’s question. Why poetry? What strange power is it that we keep turning to in moments of wonder or despair whispered late at night? The question is old because the uncertainty is old, and every poet somewhere along the way has muttered it mid-draft, staring at the page.”
He reflected on poetry’s unique role in communication: “In a world drowning in words, poetry survives by asking for less,” he said. “Not thousands of words, just a few. Not a torrent, but a drop distilled. One drop strong enough to change the bloodstream. It holds open a space where words can once again be trusted, where they can carry truth, where they can make human lives intelligible to one another in fractured times. It steadies us by showing that language can still bear meaning, that a small flame can last even in a gale.”
Phillips emphasized how poetry fosters connection among people: “To encounter a poem is to hear another voice, sometimes centuries old, sometimes close at hand, saying, ‘I felt this, I saw this, I endured this.’ And in that instant, the private becomes shareable. We realize we are not alone, and suddenly a bridge is built, made of nothing but air and syllables, yet somehow sturdier.”
During an informal conversation after his lecture with Lejuez, Phillips recounted his early exposure to Shakespeare through his mother: “I grew up with my mother always reciting Shakespeare,” he said. “But everything had a context. She had passages of Shakespeare for everything, good or bad. I was constantly amazed not just by the beauty but by her capacity for recall… Most people get Shakespeare in a book; I was getting it recited when I was 10.”
Asked about his favorite poem he responded: “I have a completely non-hierarchical mind; they’re like my kids,” he said. “They all have their function… My favorite poem is the next one that I’m going to write.”
Reflecting on what he learns from teaching students at Stony Brook University Research & Innovation (https://research.stonybrook.edu/), Phillips stated: “I thought of my students when I titled this talk Why poetry?… They ask essential questions… I always make a point of… remembering what that’s like and also what these initial questions are.” He continued describing how students influence his own approach: “I’ve learned different strategies for the ways in which old art can sound new… They teach me different angles and points of entry into art which are incredibly necessary parts of being… there are certain things that you can study and feel like you’ve been thrust on path that’s not your own…with poetry…the path is foggy…and it’s where you want to be.”
One student attendee Aminah Augustin-Muhammad shared her perspective: “I’ve been looking forward to the event for weeks,” she said.”I love poetry…and I adore him as professor…He answers questions that you already had but also opens up new questions…It didn’t feel like lecture; it felt like he was talking to us each individually…”
Concluding his remarks on why poetry matters today Phillips told attendees: “Because it creates recognition because it takes what is most fragile and fleeting and makes it durable…because it allows us say one another ‘I see you’…Poetry is candle carried into room…it does not cure dark…does not rebuild what broken…but allows us see one another’s faces…and from recognition face-to-face everything else begin…and that end my poetry.”
