Students and faculty gathered on Feb. 19 to hear original poems crafted by student poets in Dr. Steven Moore’s ENGL 323 class, despite worries of decreasing public interest. The poems responded to the cross-culturally paired artworks, “The Boundless: Origins,” by Department of Art and Design chair Robert Green and artist Sheng Dongqiao from Tongcheng, China.

“Boundless Origins” was initiated by Green’s interest in Chinese art. Green said he had been mirroring his paintings after the formats of Chinese art. A colleague and friend of Green’s, Dr. Berlin Fang, loaned Green a book of Sheng’s drawings after seeing Green’s artwork. 

Boundless: A U.S.-China Collaboration Exhibition (Photo by Callie Leverett).

From Abilene to Tongcheng, Green and Sheng began communicating via letters with the help of Fang’s translations. As the two artists conversed, Green said they noticed similarities between their works.  

“I sent some copies of some of my work, and he sent some copies of some of his paintings,” Green said. “From that conversation, we decided that our works had a lot in common and were responding to historical traditions and Chinese art.” 

The two decided to have their own independently created works displayed together. Exhibitions of the corresponding artwork are displayed in the Brown Library.

Green said he is grateful that he branched out to connect with someone he does not know. He said he encourages students to move outside their comfort zone. 

“There’s some fear that one would hold about reaching out to somebody you don’t know and having a conversation,” Green said. “I just found that this was a really positive experience, and it opened doors for conversations that I would likely not have had. Other good things came from it: friendship, collaboration and art exhibitions.” 

The collaboration between Green and Moore started in the fall after Green attended one of Moore’s poetry readings at the Grace Museum. Moore’s poems were responses to an exhibition of corresponding artists.  

Green said he was in the process of bringing the exhibition to ACU as he watched Moore present his poems at the museum. Knowing that Chinese art often includes poetry, Green said he figured asking Moore to do the same would be a good idea. 

Mikhail Fortner, junior English major from Burnet, and Dr. Steven Moore posed together for a selfie. (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore)

“I asked him if he would be willing to think about involving his students in the spring when he taught his poetry class,” Green said. “He loved the idea.” 

Moore said he had his students visit the exhibition in January and respond through poetry. On Feb. 19, the students showcased their poems in the Brown Library reading commons area. As the student poets spoke, the art flashed on a screen behind them, allowing the audience to visualize the artistic conversation. 

The poetry reading was well attended, Moore said, speaking to the return of public support for poetry that has been absent in recent years. 

“It is so hard to get people excited about poetry, or it’s so hard to get people to show up to an event, celebrating poetry,” Moore said, “but I was blown away.” 

When people say poetry is not for them, Moore said he reminds them that poetry is for everyone.  

“All of us are poets, whether you realize it or not,” Moore said. “Picasso says, ‘Everyone’s born an artist, but the trouble is to remain an artist when you grow up and to continue to be an artist as you grow up.’ And so, I think that’s true of poetry.” 

For this purpose, Moore shows the movie “Dead Poets Society” in class. The film is a 1989 Oscar-winning film, directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman. It highlights perceiving poetry as passion, rather than solely a segment in an academic curriculum.  

Moore said that, in showing the movie, he seeks to remind students how embracing poetry can change the world. Regardless of major, Moore said he encourages students to take these classes. 

June Skelly, senior English major from Fort Worth, performs an original poem (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore).

Ava Clayton, junior mechanical engineering major from Flower Mound, reads an original poem (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore).

“I think every single soul is a poet,” he said, “There’s just something about society when one grows up, that either they just fall away from poetry or they just don’t see the value of it.” 

On the day of the reading, not only was Moore impressed by the event turnout, but many from the audience responded with positive feedback. Moore said faculty, staff and students approached him with compliments. 

“A lot of the students, they just came up to me and just said they were deeply moved; They were deeply touched by what the poets said,” Moore said. “They just enjoyed the incredible colors and visions and sights and sounds that they wrote about, and they did a fantastic job.” 

Each poet had unique poems to present. A few students responded to the entire exhibition, and others focused on specific pieces.  

“They were varied, some were long, and some were short, but all of them were heartfelt, and intriguing, and offered insight into their own perspective on what they had seen,” Green said. “Yeah, I really enjoyed that.”