2008 Woodie Awards
Intimate poetry in an intimate setting:
Theo Rutherford and Chris Shepard jam in the Red Door
Jackie Starner
Issue date: 1/27/05 Section: Life!
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The Red Door was packed with students eager to hear the poetic jams of Theo Rutherford '08 and Chris Shepard '07 last Friday night. The Red Door felt more like a hip coffee house that night as Rutherford and Shepard brought intellectual entertainment the College. Although some of the poetry may have left audience members asking themselves "What did that mean?" Rutherford and Shepard elicited shouts of approval from the audience through many of their works.
One poem to which the audience enthusiastically responded was Rutherford's "God is a postcard," this not being the title of the poem but perhaps its most memorable line. Rutherford did not worry about offending people with his disapproval of organized religions' practice of making those who do not believe in God feel guilty. In his poem, he expressed his feeling that God needs to be discovered by everyone individually: "faith is a journey, not a guilt trip." Like Rutherford, Shepard was also not afraid to tackle controversial issues. In a poem that Shepard prefaced by saying, "sometimes we get pissed off and write things like this," he expressed the troubles he has experienced as a gay man. Like Rutherford, Shepard also expressed disapproval with aspects of organized religion. "Why would I choose to live this life?" Shepard asked in his poem. Shepard made reference to possible religious figures, who claimed that he had made a conscious choice to be gay.
The program took a more humorous turn as Rutherford examined a painful experience he had as a dyslexic child. Rutherford explained to the audience that he was not just dyslexic, but "hardcore dyslexic." In his poem, he recalled being called on to read in class, a dyslexic kid's worst nightmare. However, instead of struggling through the passage to the amusement of his non-dyslexic peers, he strolled up to the board and wrote f-u, purposely abbreviating the phrase because the odds of writing those seven letters in the right order are not that good for a dyslexic kid.
One poem to which the audience enthusiastically responded was Rutherford's "God is a postcard," this not being the title of the poem but perhaps its most memorable line. Rutherford did not worry about offending people with his disapproval of organized religions' practice of making those who do not believe in God feel guilty. In his poem, he expressed his feeling that God needs to be discovered by everyone individually: "faith is a journey, not a guilt trip." Like Rutherford, Shepard was also not afraid to tackle controversial issues. In a poem that Shepard prefaced by saying, "sometimes we get pissed off and write things like this," he expressed the troubles he has experienced as a gay man. Like Rutherford, Shepard also expressed disapproval with aspects of organized religion. "Why would I choose to live this life?" Shepard asked in his poem. Shepard made reference to possible religious figures, who claimed that he had made a conscious choice to be gay.
The program took a more humorous turn as Rutherford examined a painful experience he had as a dyslexic child. Rutherford explained to the audience that he was not just dyslexic, but "hardcore dyslexic." In his poem, he recalled being called on to read in class, a dyslexic kid's worst nightmare. However, instead of struggling through the passage to the amusement of his non-dyslexic peers, he strolled up to the board and wrote f-u, purposely abbreviating the phrase because the odds of writing those seven letters in the right order are not that good for a dyslexic kid.