FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 24, 2022
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University English Professor Dr. Sam Dodson’s poem After Her Mother Passed has been chosen for inclusion in The Poetry Foundation’s American Life in Poetry series, published in newspapers and venues across the country.
“Here is an elegant flower of a poem — small, delicate in sentiment and yet so resonant in meaning,” wrote Kwame Dawes, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. “Sam Dodson, in a few short lines, observes the stoic strength of faith, the sadness of loss, and the rituals we perform to help us cope with the helplessness that comes with grief.”
After Her Mother Passed
Lutheran beautiful Eva
broke down for a
dear, dear moment
before she picked
that rake back up
and moved maple
leaves over grass
Growing up in a large Catholic family in Omaha, Neb., Dr. Dodson was educated in an all-boys Jesuit high school in the early ’70s. He holds an MA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from the University of Nebraska. He has been on the Tarleton faculty since 1998.
He is the author of Berryman’s Henry: Living at the Intersection of Need and Art, published in 2006; poetry chapbooks After All Those Living Rooms and Ego Killings; his 2021 memoir, Big Life; and numerous scholarly articles.
For more information about The Poetry Foundation visit www.poetryfoundation.org.
A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.