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Ex-Ann Arbor poet returns home

Lawrence Joseph is a professor of law at St. John's University and an award-winning poet. As you might expect, Joseph's vast legal knowledge tends to work its way into his poetry, but he seems tired of the association. He describes law and poetry as "separate endeavors," each involving "a different way of thinking."

When Joseph read from his most recent work, "Before our Eyes," as well as 1988's "Curriculum Vitae" and 1983's "Shouting At No One" last Thursday at the Rackham Amphitheater, it was clear that he has no difficulty reconciling his two professions.

Lawrence Goldstein, editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review and organizer of the University's visiting writers series, describes Joseph as "one of the University of Michigan's premier success stories." Joseph attended the University in the late `60s and early `70s, first as an undergraduate and then as a Law student. As an undergraduate, he received the Hopwood Award for Poetry and attended Cambridge University on a Powers Fellowship. "Ann Arbor is where I first began to think of myself as a poet," Joseph told the assembled crowd of students, teachers and friends.

Joseph's grandparents were Lebanese and Syrian Catholic immigrants. His older work focuses on the political and religious conflicts he faced growing up as an Arab American in Detroit, here in Ann Arbor and in his present home in New York. But with "Before Our Eyes," he has taken a more meditative stance, described in the final line of the book's title poem-- "For the time being let's just keep to what's before our eyes." And Joseph's eyes take in the world in minute details of color, emotion and introspection. "I try to bring the pressures of reality into the poem," Joseph said, and reality is ever-present in his work -- a captivating description of a sunrise could easily be followed by a sudden internal discourse on the world economy.

"I like to bring in the range of language in society," he said. Joseph himself is not immune to the magnifying glass of his poetry, as poems such as "Some Sort of Chronicler I Am" examine his own faults with self-deprecating clarity.

Joseph read his poetry in a friendly, conversational and sometimes sardonic style, always engaging the audience. He emphasized the importance of the text itself, saying "I like the visual play of a poem on the page. I'm very aware of it." But Joseph's command of spoken rhythm was evident throughout. He likens the poet at a reading to a musician searching for a groove. Comparing his style to that of Bob Dylan, he claims that no two of his readings are ever quite the same.