From 8 Mile Road to the classroom at Carnegie Mellon University, poet Jim Daniels is examining the changes in American culture through his writing.
Daniels spoke Tuesday night about growing up in Detroit, where the factories his family worked at were like cities within themselves. Daniels, who was the recipient of this year’s Binghamton University Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, works as an English professor at CMU, where he teaches creative writing.
He spoke of his rock ‘n’ roll influences and cited The Stooges, a Detroit-based proto-punk band of the early 1970s, as an influence on the chaos that bleeds through his poems. He wanted to capture the “visceral, straightforward, directness” that came from early ’70s rock music, and coalesce them with his own life experiences.
“All these poems were charged with my rock ‘n’ roll influences,” Daniels said.
And, of course, since he is from Detroit, many of his poems’ themes are related to cars.
“Up on Blocks” discusses tragedies of the Vietnam War through their effects at home. The poem describes Detroit’s 8 Mile as a place where “blocks were piled up on blocks” with cars placed upon them for repair, and one waiting to be repaired while its owner fought overseas. The car represented Daniels’ interpretation of Americans’ struggles with loss during the Vietnam War, and although the poem is somber, it contains hope as Daniels still rode in his car even “after Danny died.”
In his poem “Company Men,” Daniels explains how he followed in the footsteps of his family members who have had decades-long careers, and how their dedication pushed him to peruse the same path. He writes about the attitudes and culture of these company men with quaint beauty. They learned time management and were always on duty. Daniels found their loyalty, persistence and stoicism inspiring.
Daniels also read poems that examined his life in Detroit through different foods and the values accorded to them. The poem “Hotdog Variations” is an ode to the hot dog, but also touches on themes such as sex, drugs and poverty in his community. Daniels wrote, “It fell in the dirt, but I wiped it on my jeans … It fell off the platter, and I fought the dog for it. I fought the dog, and the dog won,” bringing a humorous perspective with the situation of only being able to eat what was available.
In “Outdoor Chef,” Daniels describes his most meaningful class in high school, which taught Daniels and his “at-risk” classmates how to grill. The class, which was really meant to help the students graduate, provided a sense of community to those who otherwise felt like they were on the outside. The poem captured Daniels’ sense of humor, as he described the students setting lighter fluid on fire to spell out their names in the grass as an ode to Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire. Lines such as, “Someone stabbed someone with a skewer, but we all agreed it was an accident,” made attendees laugh with the poet, as Daniels drew listeners in to the world he grew up in.
Daniels’ poems seek to derive peace from the madness of the streets of Detroit. Through the combination of humor and lyrical language, he creates a picture of Detroit that is frozen in time while bringing the reader onto the streets he called home.