On Friday, May 14, SMU welcomed Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jorie Graham to receive the Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree. Following a reception in the Texana Room of DeGolyer Library, Jorie Graham gave a reading of her poetry under the high ceilings of the Stanley Marcus Reading Room.

Graham began the reading with “I Was Taught Three,” a poem that explores three words for “chestnut” in Italian, French, and English. Though an American citizen, Graham spent much of her childhood in Rome. As a result, Graham speaks Italian, French, and English fluently. It is no surprise, then, that poems like “I Was Taught Three” take on a linguistic theme. It even comes through in the sound of Graham’s reading; words flow together gracefully, her intonations loop like falling leaves.

But Graham is also a poet concerned with nature.  Many of the poems Graham read relate to water, which was appropriate as the afternoon’s rain beat against the windows.

She spoke passionately about the importance of caring for one’s environment, an idea that infiltrates many of Graham’s poems about seasons and the natural world.

“It is hard to live in a world and not feel accountable to it,” Graham said.

Of course, Graham’s vigilant love for poetry itself was very evident during the afternoon reading.

“Working on a poem can be like kneading dough; you don’t know when you’ve overworked it,” she said, “but you know a poem is finished when it’s not moving anymore.”

Graham is a graduate of NYU and the University of Iowa. She is currently the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard University. For more information on her work, visit www.joriegraham.com.