Milton Jordan: A Historical Poet

 Interview by Summer Flores

Milton Jordan can be described as a pastor, a historian, and a storyteller. Jordan grew up in the great state of Texas. To be specific, he grew up in “The City with No Limits”, Houston Texas. You can say Jordan is a real Texan at heart but has worked also in the Midwest writing historical pieces, poetry, and reviews.

As far as his academic career goes, he received a Bachelor of Arts in History and English at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. He would later receive his Master's at Perkins School of Theology at South Methodist University located near the heart of Dallas.

Jordan went later on to publish a few poems and seminary journals while in his college career. Although, at Southwestern in the 1950s and into the early 60s, he was writing very little poetry. Jordan was involved in sports writing for the campus’s weekly newspaper. There he wrote game coverage and feature pieces nearly every single week. He also wrote one poem on living in the dorm where J. Frank Dobie, a folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist of the depictions of Texas, lived 50 years before.

Since then, Jordan has been working diligently on poems, essays, stories, and reviews and publishing many. Jordan has been graced with the opportunity of getting some of these writings published in journals and magazines, such as “Christian Advocate,” “Texas Methodist,” Texas Observer,” “Idaho Heritage,” “Slackwater is Living in the Firelands,” and a few weekly and daily newspapers.

While in Ohio, he wrote for the “Black River Review,” “Poetry is Living in the Firelands,” “Alternative,” from Oberlin College, and a few other Midwest journals

As a true Texan, he has also written for “East Historical Journal,” “Southwestern Historical Quarterly,” “Gulf Coast History,” and several more. His poetry has appeared in Texas Poetry Calendar, Ocotillo Review, Voices de la Luna, Arts Alive SA, Texas Poetry Assignment, and New Verse News.

Jordan continues his writing career back at home in Georgetown where he is now retired and able to spend more time writing.

How would you describe your origin story as a poet? What are your first memories of reading and writing poetry? Which people, teachers, and poets were most influential to you in the beginning?

MJ: My college English professor, F. Burr Clifford, while in Georgetown, introduced me to William Carlos Williams. I later found Charles Olson, Ed Dorn, Denise Levertov, and others in that same tradition.

How would you describe your writing process when it comes to poetry? How do you know when you are ready to write a poem and how does the drafting, revising, and editing process work for you?

MJ: I sit down and write three or four mornings a week. Yes, I know for some that it is time-consuming, but that is easier since I am retired. Previously, I would write a first draft on a notebook page, revision on the facing page, and often repeat that process. I also always wrote in pencil with an eraser handy. Lately, I’ve been using a computer. In every case, I try to read a poem aloud several times. Editors sometimes are helpful. My wife Anne reads almost all my stuff. I also have a few friends who make suggestions.

What topics or issues frequent your poems? Have those changed over time?

MJ: Usually, a word or a phrase gets my attention or a scene, especially some event in my experience or the news. Much of my poetry is what’s sometimes called “occasional poetry.” About 80% of what I write is “occasional poetry,” and it has often been successful. I send these out to a list of friends and adversaries two or three times a month and get feedback.

I have read your poem "Wandering the Back Roads" on the Texas Poetry Assignment. What do you recall about the inspiration for this poem? How does it reflect the choices you regularly make in crafting your poetry on the page? Shape? Line? Music? Comparison? Balance? Were there any new craft choices you made?

MJ: “Wandering the Back Roads” was originally in standard blank verse stanzas inspired by my strong desire to avoid the main highway. Laurence posted an assignment for a shaped poem, and I rewrote it as a Texas map. My poetry is almost always in an iambic pentameter line format and usually between twelve and twenty-five lines. I am not sure why I settled into that habit.

What advice would you give to young people who are interested in reading poetry, writing poetry, and publishing their work?

MJ: DO IT. Read a lot of poetry by a lot of poets. Write when something gets your attention and when you’re not sure you have any inspiration at all. It’s good if you can set aside a particular regular time a few days a week. Read journals and little mags you find in your library and online and try submitting poems to some you like. Expect to get a lot of rejections, but keep trying.

If you had to recommend one or two Texas Poetry Assignment poets to other readers, who might you suggest?

MJ: Most of them, especially: Loretta Diane Walker (sadly no longer living.(“Poetry Is..”), Chip Dameron (“Letter to Child Never Born”), Jim Lavilla-Havelin ( “It Might as Well Be…”), Katie Hoerth (“The Recipe for Fudge”).

How would you distinguish contemporary poetry from poetry from earlier eras?

MJ: Current technology makes it fairly easy to set up online journals, so contemporary poetry seems to have a thousand forms and styles. You can now type something up, edit it, and send it on its way easily. Poetry in English before WWI may have had more standard forms, but the 20th century likely had as much variation as we see today.

If you had a chance to ask a question to a poet you admire (living or dead), who is the poet and what would you ask?

MJ: Charles Olson. Olson was notoriously difficult to question. He was, as often as not, likely to ignore questions and go on with what he was saying. It could be embarrassing I'm told (never having met him) and folks were hesitant to raise questions. Even so, I might ask to comment on his epigram “What does not change is the will to change.” That seems to be foundational to his work and his teaching. Most of what I know of Olson, beyond the poems, I learned from his student Ed Dorn, a great poet in his own right.

When did you feel successful when it came to writing poetry? Did you ever doubt yourself during your writing journey?

MJ: My first feeling of success in writing was when the local Georgetown Weekly reprinted one of my sports pieces and paid me $5 - big money in 1959. My first successful poetry submission beyond in-house school and church papers, was in 1971 when the Texas Observer published a poem of mine and paid me $5 - still pretty big money for me.

Summer Flores grew up in Coleman, Texas, a pretty small town. She has always had an interest in the literary arts and graduated from Angelo State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities for education. She now resides in San Angelo, TX where she teaches the young minds of 7th graders.