Peak to Peak local Scott Harrison does not consider himself a poet as most people would define one. He doesn’t make a living out of his poetry and is mostly unpublished. His collection, simply titled Haiku Poetry, which focuses on the animals he carved for the beloved Carousel of Happiness, is available on the carousel’s website (carouselofhappiness.org). Otherwise, though, he primarily enjoys writing poetry for himself and reading poetry of others, including The Mountain-Ear’s own Alexander Shalom Joseph.
In 2015, Harrison attended a writing class for veterans. The class, which he remembers as being a two-month long weekly class, allowed veterans suffering from PTSD to put thoughts rattling in their heads onto paper. They experimented with telling their stories in various forms, including poetry, and then discussed their writings with each other.
For Harrison, it helped tremendously. Even though he left combat in Vietnam in 1968, there were (and are) still aspects of combat that bothered him. For him, the writing process was magic and helped him to process. The teacher focused on poetry for about two weeks, and the poetry didn’t have to focus on the exact happenings of each veteran. It simply had to tie into what they were thinking about involving war or their trauma.
Harrison wrote two poems during this time. One of these poems, “The Corner Vet,” focuses on two perspectives: a homeless veteran asking drivers for help and an unwilling driver stuck at a red light, trying to convince their child that this person is bad news.
The poem does not give a happy resolution to the veteran, but Harrison hopes that there is still hope hidden in the words: that the child realizes there is more going on, and that they understand that the veteran should be helped, not ignored.
The other poem, “An Old Man Stands at the Cemetery,” one of ten poems readers can now vote for in The Mountain-Ear’s 2024 Poetry Contest, centers on a veteran paying tribute to his fellow fallen soldiers.
In general, this class was the first time Harrison decided to focus on writing about his experiences in Vietnam and the military. However, since high school and college, he’s been writing poetry for himself, to express his thoughts. He considers his early poetry, in particular, “the ramblings of a young man figuring life out,” scribbling these thoughts on whatever he could find around him. He doesn’t believe these works are polished enough for publication, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been published.
He is currently working on a novel based on his experiences in Vietnam, and through Julian and Janette Taylor’s Sockwood Press, he wrote two short stories for the 2017 local anthology Under the Devil’s Thumb, titled “One Full Squat and Four Wisdom Teeth” and “Cupcake in the Window.” Along with that, he’s written about six shorter works centering around his time training in the Marines, his experience in Vietnam combat, and his hospital stay after being wounded, but these have not been officially published.
There’s something special to Harrison about poetry, though. He feels that through poetry the writer has certain thoughts on one side of the page, and the reader engages with those thoughts, possibly completely differently, on the other side. Off the top of his head, he finds himself particularly inspired by the works of e.e. cummings and Ogden Nash.
For him, poets don’t have to come across as clever to be likable as writers. Instead, they can demonstrate authenticity and sincerity in their words, which allows for an exploration of sensitive and deep topics in a way that differs completely from short stories, essays, or even novels.
Harrison hopes that in general people find poetry that engages with their heart and their head, allowing them to reflect not necessarily on the work, but on the messages present within it. He hopes that in the case of his cemetery poem and the dozens of carved animals that he eventually turned into the Carousel of Happiness, he can engage with people through their heads and hearts.
He feels that poetry in particular skips the formalities of introduction and gets straight to the point: “I’m feeling a certain way about this, what about you?” He believes that art like poetry engages with people in a different way than simply by giving them information, and he hopes that somehow, people can find answers through both mediums of expression.
To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Mountain-Ear is running a poetry contest! Readers can vote for their favorite spring local poem by visiting https://www.themtnear.com/2024-poetry-contest-entries/. There, they can learn which issue contains each of the ten poems available to vote for, or they can listen to an audio version of each poem read by this article’s author, Jamie Lammers. Reader’s choice voting closes on Thursday, May 25, 2024, so go online now and vote!
Listen in for a one-on-one interview with Scott Harrison hosted by arts & culture writer, Jamie Lammers