Accomplished poet and UWMC alumni Lowell Jaeger visited his old campus on Oct 1 to spend some time with students and share a bit of his work. To describe the event as anything less than inspirational would be an injustice. While attending a Creative Writing class taught by his former instructor, Professor J.D. Whitney, it was clear that this UWMC alumni still shared, not only a great respect for the campus and those who teach there, but also an obvious passion for life. Speaking with a class that occasionally lapsed into friendly laughter, it was like a meeting of a society of writers, people who understood an art and why they took part in it. Jaeger read and discussed a few of his poems with the students, including pieces entitled “World-Maker’s Daughter,” “On my Forty-Ninth Birthday,” and “Milkweed.” Students gained a rare opportunity to discuss the work of a poet that they had read, with the actual poet who had written those individual poems. Throughout the discussion, a great deal of insight was shared, coming not only from Jaeger, but also students and Professor Whitney. It was a pleasure to interview Lowell Jaeger after class and ask him a few questions about his work, his experiences with The Forum, and how attending the UWMC campus has affected his career and his life.
The Forum: I wanted to ask, do you have any advice for people who want to be writers?
Lowell Jaeger: Umm, that’s a big question, but let me think about it. I think the reason I’m still writing… I think I started writing here in Wausau, probably about eighth grade. I think the reason I’m still writing is I had people like my eighth grade English teacher, and John Whitney and other instructors that I had who never said I couldn’t, you know what I mean? They just said, “That’s what you’re doing,” and they kind of gave me permission that way to do it, and I’m not sure to begin with if I had any sort of real faith in myself that I could do it, I was sort of dabbling, but those people, those teachers, took me seriously. When I look back at the poems that I gave to John Whitney, how many years ago, like 35 or something years ago, I just sort of have to smile because I think, “Boy, these are some really terrible poems,” but John treated them honorably. He saw some worth in them, and he’d try to say, “This is a good part you can expand on.”
F: I think encouragement helps a lot.
Jaeger: I really don’t even want to use the word “encouragement.” I want to use that word where…I keep wanting to say “taken seriously.” I don’t think John ever said to me “You could be a writer!” But I think he said to me, “This piece of writing here, I’m going to look at it seriously, I’m going to talk to you about it seriously. I’m not going to just throw it away like it’s a worthless thing.”
F: Along those same lines, do you think your experiences here [at UWMC] helped you a lot?
Jaeger: Oh, this place was magic. This place was magic to me. See I grew up just a few blocks away from here, and these buildings weren’t all the same then, in fact there was just one building in the beginning, it was just an old brick building, it was like a teacher’s college or something, when I was a very small kid. And we’d wander over here as small kids, we had a janitor who actually would take us through the heating tunnels and stuff, but we were fascinated because we just saw in this place… here was where people came to talk about things that just seemed way beyond our world. There were ideas being exchanged, there was art, and we didn’t know any of these things. So I think the value of a place like this, in a community like this, was just way high. It changed my life just living near it. And then when I actually got to go to school here and meeting new teachers here…I mean, I finished at University of Northern Arizona and then I was at University of Iowa for two master’s degrees and… the best teachers I’ve ever had were right here. By far. Because, just like with John today, he knows all of you guys, and he’s trying to give you his best of what he can do to expand your world, and he’s receptive, I think, to the world you come from.
I have to tell you another story…I used to come here, when I was in high school. I used to come to the campus here Friday nights, and I would just…it’d be pretty much deserted, but I would just sit in hallways, like I saw kids in the hallways today, and I would just sort of be quiet and sit, and years later I think, “Well, what was I doing there, just sitting?” And I realize a lot of, and some of the most important, changes in my life…happened in those sort of quiet moments. Maybe I just wandered the halls, and I’d read the teachers bulletin boards, the cartoons, and the ideas and things like that, and it made me connect, I think, to things that were beginning in me that I had no idea were there. I was just attracted, like this place was a magnet, and I just absolutely… I thought the teachers were just gods, I just thought they were the smartest, most exciting human beings I’ve ever met. Well, now that I’ve been teaching for over 30 years, I realized I was probably wrong. But I still think, that what they did for me was that they totally shaped me, as a teacher, and as a human being, they showed me by example, how to treat people in the classroom, and the education I got here was more than the credits I earned. It was being around these people too, in this environment, that helped me learn things that I didn’t know I’d signed up for.
F: How were your experiences with The Forum?
Jaeger: See, those were very political times, in the late 60s and early 70s. Yeah. And so it was a very political newspaper, and of course my brothers and I were anti-war, so we…ruined The Forum I’m sure. But that was back in the days where we had to actually type on a typewriter and we’d paste the stories in, and then, I think we had to like Xerox it or something. So, there’s a real difference in process. Now you probably have to use In-Design or something?
F: Oh yeah, we’ve got somebody setting up a website.
We’re doing all sorts of stuff. Jaeger: Yeah, you’re way ahead of us. See, I can tell even by this interview. I mean, we would clip things out of Village Voice, and whatever, and just…we had no idea how to run a newspaper. Again, I mean it was like the opportunity that we had though, to do something like that, that we couldn’t have done on a larger campus. And it’s amazing to me now, how forbearing and tolerant the faculty were, because my brother and I were not good students! We must have been a little bit of a pain, and somebody must have, at times, been like, “Whoa, should we let these two go on like that?” But they did, and I think that in letting us do that they also shaped us and they also lent us, in a very gentle, teacherly way, guidance. That helped me see later on, better things.
Jaeger was also present on campus for a poetry reading later that night, at 7:00 p.m. in the Terrace Room. A small crowd of adults, students, and relatives of the poet himself came to listen as Jaeger read a wide selection from his latest book Suddenly, Out of a Long Sleep. Baked goods and refreshments were served after the event, and Jaeger had copies of his books available for purchase. Jaeger’s books should also be available in the campus bookstore for people to buy and enjoy, so you can pick up your own copy if you wish. To read samples of Jaeger’s poetry without actually purchasing a book, check out arctospress.com or rattle.com. Jaeger also has a profile on humanitiesmontana. ning.com with some information about himself and current projects he is working on, so you can check that out as well.
