We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Roger Powell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Roger thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project was my first book of poetry: Dandelions Aren’t Weeds: Poems on Masculinity, Identity, and Life. Because I am a straight, white, cisgendered heterosexual man, folks stereotype me and assume that I want to engage in stereotypical and toxically masculine behavior such as making sexist and homophobic remarks, getting involved in unnecessary violence, not displaying emotion, and being devoid of empathy. This has always bothered me immensely, and I’ve often been told to “man up.” This poetry book draws on narrative poems — poems that tell a story — to process and make meaning of these moments where people wanted me to be toxically masculine . They also represent good men in my life who display powerful traits of healthy masculinity such as toughness, bravery, compassion, and empathy and that men can both be kind and strong. The central metaphor in the book is that dandelions aren’t weeds and that being a man doesn’t have to be what society thinks it has to be. This was extremely therapeutic for me, and I’ve been able to connect to many men because the themes represented in this book resonated with societal pressures placed on them.

Roger , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been teaching at the college level for over a decade, and I’ve been writing poetry and fiction most of that time. My poems are always very autobiographical in nature and try to make sense of complicated themes through the power of vivid, clear, and descriptive language. I like for my poems to be accessible for everyone while also making them think, and so far a wide array of readers have connected with my work. I have several poetry books in the works and am also working on a novel that is a ghost story set in a university.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn that you will never fully be ready to start — you just have to go for it anyway. I came up with the idea for my first book nearly a decade ago, but didn’t publish it until last year. I kept convincing myself it wasn’t ready and that no one would like it. I kept self-sabotaging myself, and finally, I had enough and just started. It of course took a lot of revision. My editor went through the book with a fine tooth comb, and I made it even better. The big lesson that I had to unlearn is that no one is ever fully ready to start — you have to anyway. I’d encourage other creatives to just start. You never know where it will take you and who needs your art right now.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I find writing to be so therapeutic but also a very real way to connect with others. So I have multiple purposes of helping myself heal, reflect, and make sense of the world around me, but also to write about themes that connect to others. Writing at it’s heart is a social act — we write to have it read by others. These are the reasons I get excited about writing and what fuels my creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dr.roger.powell
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roger.powell.75054/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-powell-ph-d-0530569a/

Image Credits

Downtown Poetry

NWA Poetry Connection