Words of advice from a former classmate left an impression on Residential College in the Arts and Humanities professor Anita Skeen.
Not only did those words come from novelist and poet Margaret Atwood, but they also caused Skeen to never be able to put her pen down without thinking of the words she’d chosen in her composition.
“Always, when I finish a poem now, I swear I look at every single word and I think, ‘Is this the best word?’” Skeen said.
Skeen, who has been an integral part of the Center for Poetry at MSU, now in its second year, works hard to make the center valuable for students and the community.
“We really are an idea that’s finding itself,” she said. “We’re particularly interested in bringing writers to campus for the students to work with, holding workshops that students and community members can participate in, and just bringing poetry into the lives of everyday people.
“A poem for me is kind of like that apple,” she said. “It may not keep that doctor away but it will enrich your life a great deal if you could take the time every day to read a poem.”
###