Bobby Rogers: Persistent Poet

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come! 

Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for; 

But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental,   
 greater than before known, 

Arouse! Arouse—for you must justify me—you must   
 answer. 

Walt Whitman wrote these stirring words in his poem “Poets to Come” in 1871 as a call to the next generation of poets to keep the art of poetry alive and to stay true to its intended meaning.  

Poetry is a staple of humankind. Master poets such as Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allen Poe have inspired hundreds of young poets to write their own ballads of hope and woe. 

Reading these legendary poets’ work in the present day, though, I have been wondering where the fate of poetry lies. Why hasn’t modern poetry been celebrated as much as the classics? Has the meaning of it faded? Has the art of poetry disappeared in our modern-day need for speedy and clear communication?  

In answer to these questions, I was led to talk to Dr. Bobby Rogers, Professor of English at Union University, an established author and poet whose poems have appeared in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review and The Image. (Even these are only a piece of his tower of accomplishments; I wish I had more page space to give them credit.) Besides teaching English core classes at Union, he leads creative writing classes and sponsors the student publication literary arts journal The Torch.

Rogers revealed that writing poetry has been a part of his life since way back in elementary school, where his father, who was the principal, posted Rogers’s work on the school’s library bulletin board. 

Throughout his career, Rogers remarked that some of his favorite themes of inspiration for his poems are time, family and world history, shortcomings of the English language and music, although he was careful to specify that there is nothing really that he does not write like to write about.  

“It’s fair enough just to find something that wants you to get to the end of the line and turn it over to the next line,” Rogers admitted.  

Rogers’ personal favorite poets range from Charles Wright and Louise Click to C.K. Williams and Mary Scybise, but he also expressed a deep admiration for two cornerstones of American poetry, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, who have inspired Rogers’ poems throughout his career.  

“I love Whitman, I love Emily Dickinson,” Rogers said. “You can’t be an American poet without having the two people who invented American poetry. There’s no American poetry before Whitman and Dickinson.” 

I ventured to ask Rogers the burning question in my mind: “What do you think the value of poetry is?” 

“Does it have to have value?” Rogers quickly replied. “It’s not necessarily monetary at all. It’s the value of all art: it nourishes our soul, makes the day worth getting through…We need it as exactly as much as ever, not less at all. Creativity always has value. We are made in the image of a Creator God—we are meant to be creative. And our language is one of the expressions of that.” 

Rogers described his poetry writing method to be a constant cycle of drafting, writing, publishing and then back to the drawing board to draft a new poem.   

“I start out with a paper draft written by hand, type it out. [It] used to be a manual typewriter when I was in college; now it’s [digital]. But I still like to work with draft pages, print it out on a page, mark it up, changes and additions and things, print out a clean draft, and I’ll do it 20, 25, 30 times.” 

I asked Rogers if this never-ending cycle was inspiring for him. Wouldn’t the grind of always working on another poem tire any poet out? 

Rogers responded, “You’ve written a good sentence before, haven’t you?” 

I had to agree that, yes, I have written a good sentence. 

“How did it feel?” 

“Good,” I admitted.

“Yeah?” Rogers said. “And you just want to write another good line, and another good line. Doesn’t hurt anyone.” 

Poets always will continue to write poems despite the droning cycle of writing and rewriting, the non-monetary benefits and changes in culture, because of this love for the craft.  

“Mostly, I’m trying to write a poem that Walt Whitman would approve of,” Rogers said. “Not that our culture today would approve of.” 

In the last two lines of “Poets to Come,” Walt Whitman prompts the future generation of poets to keep poetry alive: 

Leaving it to you to prove and define it, 

Expecting the main things from you. 

“Poetry is not going anywhere,” Rogers stated. “Whether poetry is successful in the marketplace is a whole different thing, but poetry will always be here.”