Bart Edelman, a poet and former professor of English at Glendale College, came back to campus on May 23 to read from his latest collection, “This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993-2023.” Edelman shared meditations on life, love, and loss to an audience composed of current students, alumni, faculty, and other community members.
This Body Is Never at Rest features a selection of Edelman’s poems that have previously appeared in his seven prior collections, literary journals, anthologies, and textbooks, as well as 46 original poems. “It is important to me as a writer to have a cross-section of my poetry within a single book – it really is 30 years’ worth of work,” he said in an interview. The process of choosing which poems to include caused some difficulty: “Most books of mine have 40-50 poems; this collection contains 175 individual selections, and winnowing them down was not an easy task.” He expressed gratitude to Meadowlark Press, his publisher, for their steadfast support.
Edelman’s passion for poetry emerged from a broader fascination with the intricacies of language itself. He reflected, “I always had an interest in words,” in large part due to his mother’s eloquence. His first foray into formal writing was crafting political articles in high school. He later became interested in writing song lyrics, which quickly morphed into poetry.
He remains drawn to poetry for its emphasis on metaphor and unique structure, in which the arrangement of stanzas, line breaks, and use of punctuation can have just as much meaning as the words themselves.
At the event, Edelman read several poems inspired by his time as an educator, including some about particularly memorable students. He noted that teaching creative writing forges “a connection between your students and you that goes deeper than in other academic departments because many of the students write about their personal lives, and they really have to dig deep and confront things about themselves. As a professor and mentor, you guide them on a more personal, intimate level,” leaving a lasting impact on student and professor alike.
Edelman taught a variety of creative writing and English courses at GCC for 37 years. During his time here, he also edited Eclipse, a literary journal that originated as a student publication and expanded to feature writers from across the United States and Europe. He described the reading as “a bit of a homecoming,” and saw quite a few familiar faces, including former students, at the reception. He observed that the GCC community’s ethos is unchanged: “everyone was so kind and welcoming.”
“This Body Is Never at Rest” can be purchased at www.meadowlarkbookstore.com or anywhere else books are sold. Bart Edelman’s complete works, as well as past issues of Eclipse, are available at the college library.
Carissa C. can be reached at [email protected]