Nebraska State Poet Kloefkorn reads from new book, plans signings

Smiling slightly, speaking slowly and deliberately, Bill Kloefkorn, state poet of Nebraska and retired professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University, recalled convincing his mother that he was choking on a bar of soap.

"I used to say some of the ‘spicy' words that came out of (my dad's) mouth," Kloefkorn remembered of his youth growing up in Attica, Kan.

His mother would make him wash the inside of his mouth with a bar of soap. On the day he feigned choking, he realized how terrified his mother became when she thought he was choking, and he gulped, swallowing the soap.

Kloefkorn said it was an example of human crime and human punishment — of how people hurt each other.

"Swallowing the Soap" is the title poem of Kloefkorn's newest collection of verse, a mix of poems new and old, humorous and not, revolving around family, time and the wonder of mystery.

"There's an edge on some of the poems," he said. "From a certain perspective, all of (life) is like a circus. It'd be funny if it weren't so sad."

"It's very human," said Stephanie Budell, trade books manager at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bookstore where Kloefkorn will have a book signing later this month. "Life is full of ups and downs, and he has that in his poetry."

"He's a wonderful storyteller," she added.

Kloefkorn said he doesn't plan the themes of his poetry but merely writes and sees where it takes him, a philosophy akin to how he has lived his life.

In the fall of 1950, Kloefkorn arrived at Emporia State University to play football, but he later quit the team. He worked his way up through the ranks of The Bulletin, the university newspaper, to become the sports editor and imagined he would pursue it as a career. After a volunteer stint in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, Kloefkorn was ultimately led toward a career in English; toward a life of language, literature and the teaching of the disciplines.

"I loved language," he said. "As a writer, you like language, you like words, you like sticking them together."

"In the process, maybe (you) find a little something out about yourself."

Kloefkorn went back to ESU for graduate school and wrote a novel for his master's degree.

"I don't want to boast," Kloefkorn said, laughing, "but I do believe it is the worst novel I've ever published."

"But it was fun," he said.

It was not until 1968, two years before he published his first collection of poems, that Kloefkorn became interested in poetry.

While at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln pursuing his Ph.D. in English literature, Kloefkorn encountered the poetry of visiting writer Gary Gildner and received a dozen poems from his soon-to-be-published book, "First Practice."

"I read those poems and thought I'd never read poems like that before," Kloefkorn said. "It had never occurred to me that a person could write poetry out of small-town Kansas life."

The day after Gildner left, Kloefkorn wrote his first poem, "Waiting to Gel," about his high school basketball team. The poem was rejected by then-editor of the Prairie Schooner, Bernice Slote, but not without feedback Kloefkorn took to heart.

Soon after, Kloefkorn dropped out of the Ph.D. program to devote the rest of his time to poetry.

"From then on, I just read and wrote," he said.

Over the next week and a half, Kloefkorn's life will lead him to readings and book signings of "Swallowing the Soap" at Neebo on Friday and the University Bookstore on Sept. 29.

emilywalkenhorst@dailynebraskan.com