Poet Traci Brimhall reflected on what it means to love in a reading of her poetry, some of which came from her recently published book, “Love Prodigal,” in the Ulrich Museum of Art on Oct. 7. Released in November of 2024, “Love Prodigal” is the most recent of Brimhall’s seven poetry books. During the reading, Brimhall delved into the different types of love through her writing.
“I like writing, I feel like it’s part of how I’m alive, “Brimhall said. “I don’t actually sit around and wait to be inspired at all. I write like a runner might run to log the miles to keep in practice to keep those muscles warm. It’s just deeply a part of who I am.”
Brimhall also serves as the poet laureate for Kansas. A poet laureate is someone selected by the government or an institution to promote poetry and compose poems for special occasions.
“It’s a job where you are an ambassador for the art form,” Brimhall said. “People invite me to come to places, and I come to talk to them about poetry. It’s been really lovely, and I’ve gotten to enjoy conversations with people who wouldn’t have reached out to me otherwise.”
Brimhall began her reading at the Ulrich with a poem titled “Pink Ode.”
In it, she describes various people, things and memories that are either pink themselves or remind her of the color pink. Throughout the poem, she describes her relationship with her mother, who has now passed. Brimhall uses the color pink as a vessel to explore her memories of her mother.
Brimhall then moved on to talking about how much she enjoyed being called a “love poet” because, for a while, she found poems about love challenging and didn’t really write them.
“Up until book four, I’ve really never written one because they’re really, really hard. I think sadness is a much easier emotion for me,” Brimhall said. “So love poems, while that’s a safe topic … it wasn’t a safe topic for me. For me, it was much easier to use my trauma like trading cards … it’s much more vulnerable to say, ‘I like you. Do you like me?’ Like that’s much more of a vulnerable place for me to write from.”
The second poem Brimhall read was the titular poem of her book, “Love Prodigal.” In the poem, Brimhall describes love as more than a primal urge needed for production. She says she makes love when she is bored.
“I make love when I am bored,” Brimhall said while reading aloud. “That’s how I know I’m an intelligent animal.”
In the poem, Brimhall is not only an intelligent animal but a grieving and regretful one, too.
The next poem was titled “An Adimisson’s Essay to Love You.” Brimhall described how her most recent book was about more than just romantic love and how she felt that the love of her friends helped her finish this book.
“A lot of the loves are really obvious. There’s the romantic love, there’s the parent-child relationship, and also being a child having a parent,” she said. “But I feel like this book would not have been written without friends … but if it wasn’t for my friends sitting down and writing with me, and making that time with me, like this book would have never gotten finished.”
Brimhall read several pieces from her other books, ending the night with a poem she said she was almost certain she would never put in a book.
“So it just exists here, tonight,” she said.
