A poet makes music this weekend in Stillwater

Poet Tony Hoagland
Poet Tony Hoagland is a featured artist at the first White Pine Festival in Stillwater.
Photo by Kenna Bonner, courtesy of Tony Hoagland

This weekend, poet Tony Hoagland is a featured participant in the first-ever White Pine Festival. It's an interdisciplinary event, exploring the relationship between music and poetry. Through readings, performances and lectures, participants are hoping to make some new discoveries and broaden the perspective on their chosen art form.

Tony Hoagland writes free verse, without a rhyming scheme or a formal structure. But that doesn't mean his poems are without music. The rhythmic gesture and the aural sensation of words are all important facets of his poems. They're filled with biting sarcasm and wit, but with the cadence and lilt of a ballad singer observing life's foibles and ironies from the sidelines.

Hoagland joined classical music host Alison Young to share some of his ideas and read a few poems.