Colgate University Libraries has celebrated National Poetry Month for several years, highlighting an annual celebration in April to commemorate poetry in American culture. This year, University Libraries collaborated with the non-profit Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) and the Upstate Institute to bring the Poetry Machine, a gumball machine-like device that distributes poems, to Colgate’s campus and the surrounding Hamilton community.
The Poetry Machine has been featured on the third floor of Case Geyer Library as well as in the village of Hamilton, namely at Flour and Salt Cafe, Martha’s on Madison and the Hamilton Public Library. The machine contains 10 different poems, including haikus, centos, epistolaries, lists, odes, ekphrasis, prose poems, how-to’s and more. The writers featured in the machine include Julia Bloch, Erin Dorney, Camille T. Dungy, Ashley M. Jones, Lillian Klein, Laurie Kolp, Steven Leyva, Kathleen Lynch and Sasha Pimentel.
Associate University Librarian & Director of Research and Scholarly Initiatives in the University Libraries Joshua Finnell has played a crucial role in facilitating this event, alongside members from the ACW and faculty with the Upstate Institute — including Catherine Cardelús, professor of biology and environmental studies and director of the Upstate Institute; Julie Dudrick, associate director of the Upstate Institute; and others — which provided the grant for this project.
“The mission of the Adirondack Center for Writing is to inspire a love of writing, reading and storytelling,” Finnell wrote in his grant proposal to the Upstate Institute. Finnell’s proposal inspired Colgate, alongside the ACW, to carry out this interactive project and foster a community of writers.
“For National Poetry Month this year, I wanted to create an opportunity to connect with both the power of the written word and the exquisite beauty of the Adirondack Park. As Mary Oliver so beautifully stated in ‘A Poetry Handbook,’ ‘Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth,’” Finnell said.
ACW, in collaboration with their former visiting writer Erin Dorney, repurposed old gumball machines to make poetry machines. For two years, ACW has placed these machines in non-art spaces across the Adirondacks region, including a pharmacy, courthouse, diner and more.
“The point is to show that poetry is everywhere, even in the checkout line of your neighborhood market,” said Nathalie Thill, executive director of ACW.
ACW has since collaborated with many institutions that seek to bring this project to their communities, Colgate being one of them. Thill emphasized that Colgate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies Emerita Ellen Kraly is a friend of ACW, so the organization was happy to collaborate and bring poetry to Colgate’s campus.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Joshua Finnell and Colgate. Their excitement for the project is obvious, and it sounds like they have put poems in the hands of a lot of people on campus,” Thill said.
Additionally, for the past few years, Finnell has been hosting writing and poetry workshops around New York. This past summer, he led a workshop for a cohort of the Upstate Institute Adirondack Summer Field School students, and it was then that he learned about the Poetry Machine.
“The collaboration was pure serendipity,” Finnell said.
The machine has drawn the attention of many students, including first-year Ellie Givertz-Steel, who spends many of her weekdays in the library.
“I have actually had the opportunity to use the Poetry Machine, and I think it’s a great addition to the library in order to spread the importance of poetry and literature,” Givertz-Steel said.
Finnell described his future hopes for other students who encounter the project.
“Hopefully, the poetry machine inspires a few folks to seek out a poetry chapbook in the stacks, visit the Adirondacks or just relieve the joy of being a kid gleefully cranking the handle and opening a little metal door to retrieve your surprise,” Finnell said.
As of April 4, over 100 people had already taken and read a poem from the Poetry Machine. At this rate, over 300 poems are projected to be circulated around campus and the Hamilton Village by the end of the month.
