Jim Autry read a few of his poems last week during Poetry Palooza’s opening reception. Photo: Salmon Photography.
Writer: Michael Morain
If you ever plan to win an award, it doesn’t hurt to have a few eloquent friends. When Jim Autry received the inaugural James A. Autry Achievement Award last Thursday at the new Poetry Palooza festival, one of the presenters read a citation from Ted Kooser, the former U.S. poet laureate who grew up in Ames.
“I hope you can feel the gratitude for your many contributions,” Kooser wrote to Autry, the prolific writer, retired Meredith executive and longtime dsm contributor. “Thanks for all you’ve done for poetry.”
Another citation came from Nebraska’s poet laureate, Matt Mason, who was a Drake student when Autry helped kick-start the Des Moines National Poetry Festival in 1991. “It changed my life,” Mason wrote. “That whole night refreshed everything I had come to love about poetry.”
When it was Autry’s turn to speak during the reception at Franklin Junior High School, he explained that he and a friend had cooked up the idea for the festival when they were grousing about the Des Moines Grand Prix that tore through downtown from 1988 through 1992. “Wouldn’t a poetry festival be cheaper?” they mused. So they invited A-list poets from across the country and put Des Moines on the literary map for the next 15 years, until the annual festival fizzled in 2005.
The nonprofit Poetry & rekindled the event this past weekend, renamed it Poetry Palooza, and filled it with readings, workshops, a spoken-word competition and an art exhibit at Mainframe Studios. “I’m so happy to see it being brought up again, to see it resurrected,” Autry said.
Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, a poet himself, emceed the kickoff and observed that poetry draws its power from community, from the way each poet finds a unique way to express a universal experience. “One thing poets do, we recognize the shoulders we stand on,” he said, “and we continue to do the work.”
