ALUMNI PROFILE


MUDD POETS SOCIETY Written by KOREN WETMORE


F


orty-two years had passed since John Harrell ’69 had seen the name, but could it really be the North Dormer he recalled from his years at Harvey Mudd College? In 2010, Ken Solomon ’67 joined the California State Poetry


Society (CSPS), where Harrell was serving as treasurer and acting president. Yet, it wasn’t until Solomon volunteered a year later to be monthly poetry contest chair that his name fl ashed on Harrell’s radar. Harrell fi red off an email asking Solomon if he was, indeed,


a Mudder. Solomon replied, “Wow, one doesn’t run across vintage Mudders


every day, rarer still to fi nd their paths crossing in the poetry world. Yes, I am that Ken Solomon.” Solomon’s reply included a poem, “Shannon, π and Hope.” The two men now serve together as board members for the CSPS,


the offi cial representative of California poets to the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Harrell composed his fi rst poems in 1964, while an American Field


Service exchange student in Germany. Two years later, during his sopho- more year at HMC, he became a published poet. “That got the attention of two literature professors—George Wickes


and Ben Saltman. They met with me, and we set up a program between Mudd and Pomona for me to complete an equivalent B.A. in 20th Cen- tury American Literature while I fi nished my B.S. in mathematics,” says Harrell. “They were very generous in their praise of my writing skills. The memory has kept me involved with writing ever since.” For Solomon, the muse struck later but arose, as it had with Harrell,


on foreign soil. As an agricultural engineer, Solomon often traveled abroad. Poetry,


he soon discovered, proved the perfect vessel to describe the places he visited. “I began writing poetry to capture the sounds and smells of foreign markets, the colors and textures of new crops and the remark- able characters that peopled my agricultural adventures,” he says. Former HMC English Professor George Wickes also infl uenced


Solomon, who fondly recalls Wickes reading Chaucer’s works aloud— in the Old English dialect—so students could hear and appreciate the rhythm of the language. “I remember being wonderfully impressed with the melodious,


fl owing sounds,” Solomon says. “Though I didn’t pursue poetry till decades later, my memory of him reading Chaucer has resurfaced many times as I work on poems of my own.” Harrell and Solomon hope to inspire the next generation of poets. They envision the poetry society’s sponsorship of high school and


Reprinted with permission from Tiger’s Eye: A Journal of Poetry, Spring-Summer 2010


college poetry contests and conferences, each designed to promote awareness and the “doing” of poetry among young people. “Good art—good poetry—doesn’t spring fully formed like Diana


from the mind of Zeus, but is the result of shaping and reshaping so the richness of English is honored and the voice of the poet rings true,” says Harrell. “Developing the maturity needed to offer and accept constructive criticism takes time, and young people should be exposed to the collegi- ality, the support and the gentle discipline of the forums we can offer.” Mudders young and vintage can learn more about the CSPS by visiting http://CaliforniaStatePoetrySociety.org.


SPRING 2013


Har vey Mudd College


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