Reading Heather Cahoon & Victor Charlo in Calcutta

Dear Nicole, Megan & Luke,

Yesterday, students in Class X and Class XII read "Frog Creek Circle" by Victor Charlo and "Elk Thirst" by Heather Cahoon. Reading these poems with students halfway around the world from Montana made me really appreciate how our sense of a place helps us build meaning. I knew that students here in Calcutta would not know what an elk was or, understand right away why Charlo writes, "Mountains so close we are relatives." I downloaded pictures of elk and the mountains near Frog Creek and brought them with me on the iPad.
In Class X we read the Charlo poem and they were amazed more with the smallness of the town then the looming proximity of the mountains. The line made more of an impact once they could see the landscape and relate it to Charlo's words. They were at first confused, then amused by Charlo's reference to "Indian mint" at the end of the poem. Why are we only now correcting a geography mistake made by 16th century European cartographers?

This lesson taught me the power of landscape on the imagination, and how poetry truly can transmute deeper cultural ideas. Charlo's assertion of "circles" that we return to and are a part of resonated with the students. Perhaps living on a great circle does that, or simply it is our humanness. When you write your poetry, which I hope you haven't stopped, think of circles, and think in circles. Future Calcutta students will appreciate that you have.

Class XII students next read "Elk Thirst" and were immediately struck by the power of landscape in the poem. Unlike Wordsworth who feeds readers the landscape through his all powerful "I" perspective, Cahoon steps back and lets the landscape come to life in surprising and moving ways. The elk of corse dominates the land as elk often do when you come across them in the wild, and if anything writing about Montana wildlife is sure to build an audience.

Teaching students about Montana through the lens of poetry was a highly rewarding experience, and I encourage you to look more closely at your surroundings, to observe what happens in daily life, in nature, and to write about it so people on the other side of the world might have a cool taste of Montana.