From classes of Winona State University students to the local Winona community, poetry brings people together and so do poets. Darius Atefat-Peckham, a poet originally from the Midwest, is coming to Winona State to do a reading of his collection “Book of Kin” as a part of the Great River Reading Series (GRRS).  

He has an extensive history with writing, from his own collections being published to editing a posthumous collection of his late mother’s, Susan Atefat-Peckham (Autumn House Press). Yet between writings and continued education Darius Atefat-Peckham still finds time to do more than just sit at the page.  

From the age of 12 he has been writing poems and creating ways to express his grief and communicate with his late mother. “The first poem I ever wrote… a lot of it was because my mom died when I was little.” Atefat-Peckham said.  “I was three, and I never felt like I could communicate with her. So my first attempt at poetry was also my first attempt at communicating with my mom.”  

Beyond poetry being a way that Atefat-Peckham learned to communicate with his late mother, it also became a way to communicate an important part of himself with his father and stepmother via showing and sharing his poetry with them. This, in turn, lead to the discovery of the difference between sharing poems and sitting with them alone. 

“[Poetry is] like a spiritual endeavor when you’re alone, maybe. And then there’s another kind of spiritual endeavor when you share it with people who also can exist with you here,” Atefat-Peckham said.  

After this start, it was hard to stop. Leading Atefat-Peckham to discovering he wanted to eventually teach poetry when he was around 16. This urge to teach others of poetry and writing in many capacities is  part of what drives Atefat-Peckham to come to a series like the GRRS. 

“I love mentoring in any capacity that I can,” Atefat-Peckham said. “I also think that it’s lovely to get to share my work with students… All these poems happened during my undergrad at Harvard. So, it’s nice to actually kind of visit and revisit that time in my like, you know, with people who are going through it right now, and help them write poems. It’s like giving back a little bit.” 

Giving back isn’t the only part of the GRRS that is easy to look forward to for Atefat-Peckham, but also the escape to a Midwestern college town. Growing up in Interlochen, Michigan and then eventually finding his way to Texas to work on a Master of Fine Arts, the Midwest is still a familiar place that calls back.  

“My parents were professors, so the spaces that I usually spent time were college towns when I was growing up. And I love that atmosphere,” Atefat-Peckham said. “I think… it’s just going to be nice to get away for a little bit.” 

However, past the Midwestern-college-town charm of Winona, the weather is another charming point that Atefat-Peckham is excited to see. Where many people see weather as a piece of small-talk conversation, Atefat-Peckham sees it as a source of inspiration for the feelings of his poems. Some poems harness the feelings of fall while others the warmth of summer.  

The weather isn’t the only thing that affects Atefat-Peckhams poetry, but the experience of grief often colors his work. “I think, like once, once the accident happened. I had never remembered a life before it, so for me, everything is colored by the experience that I had at three years old, and everything is colored by the experience of waking up and only having half your family,” Atefat-Peckham said. 

Grief, in poetry and in life, functions as a lens in which he perceives the world around him. Some people have even asked if he will continue to give a “Darius poem” for the next week. And while that may be off putting for some, Atefat-Peckham will happily deliver a “Darius poem” because “I’m Darius, you know? And this is the kind of thing that I think about, and this is how I perceive of the world,” Atefat-Peckham said

Though, grief isn’t the only emotion that touches his poems. Atefat-Peckham often has poems with all the emotions that color the grief that someone might be experiencing. It is easy to get lost in the thought of one emotion is the right emotion for a poem, but often there is more than just one static emotion feeding through a poem, just like there is often more than one emotion that stands with grief.  

“So, yeah… even when I think about grief, like I’m writing grief poems, I think I’m also writing poems that, like, hold so much like love and tenderness and joy and all the  things that make up grief, you know, or at least ,you know, all the things that make up a kind of grief that allows you to also move forward,” Atefat-Peckham said. 

With grief being such a personal topic and many poems being comprised of personal emotions, the publication of a collection like “Book of Kin” can be daunting. However, it is a bag of mixed emotions according to Atefat-Peckham. From fear that there is a physical manifest of “a part of my soul” as Atefat-Peckham put it, to giving the book “generously to the world.” 

It is easy for people to be “selfish” or not want to give a piece of them to the world, but a part of being human is creation. In recent years there has been a push toward STEM centered careers and pursuits, seeing them as a necessity, while the arts are often pushed to the wayside. This is evident in many people’s day to day life, but the pursuit of art is just as courageous the pursuit of STEM.  

“I think it’s just really important as human beings to be creating,” Atefat-Peckham said. “I think that everything we do requires curiosity and imagination and empathy requires curiosity and imagination… I think it’s the most important thing that we do as human beings. I think it’s just so important and seminal for artists to exist and to be supported.”  

It is easy for college students, and others, to stop devoting time to art as it becomes more important to pursue a career pathway. However, there is a seemingly human impulse to create regardless.  

“I think that, like, it’s always just, like I said about different genres and writing, [art is] always there for you. Living is a lifelong practice, making is a lifelong practice,” Atefat-Peckham said. 

Through the GRRS, writers like Atefat-Peckham visit campus, come to talk to students and give a public reading of their work. Atefat-Peckham will be at Winona State on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. in Stark 103 to give his public reading.