Called one of the most underrated poets in the country by one of her contemporaries, Wendy Barker read from her latest novel in prose poetry entitled “Nothing Between Us: The Berkeley Years” to an audience of more than 60 people in Phillips Hall Friday. The poetry she wrote addresses many different themes, including gender relations, race, sex and love. Even though the story took place during the 1960s, the issues addressed apply to today’s world.
Prose poetry is a form that does not incorporate the normal line breaks associated with poetry and includes many metaphors.
“Prose poem is a hybrid form that cuts through boundaries,” Barker said. “It’s neither all poetry nor all prose. Some of the pieces are hard to pigeon-hole. One of the things I’m saying through the book is that race is hard to pigeon-hole as well.”
Barker’s latest book, her fifth full-length manuscript, is a fictional story based on her personal experience of living and teaching in Berkeley during the 1960s. The story centers around a young, white, female English teacher and her relationship with a black physical education teacher.
Barker moved to Berkeley from Phoenix in 1968 to teach in a public school that was set in a primarily African-American neighborhood. She said it was quite a different experience for her.
“It’s one thing to say we are going to do something,” she said. “It’s another thing to then be dealing with the range of deep feelings that people have.”
Barker said she enjoys how poetry allows for ambiguity and cuts through the usual types of judgmental characteristics which people make. She said the writing itself is her greatest personal pleasure and that she loves sharing all kinds of poetry with others.
Barker said she wrote this book to try and make sense of the time for herself. She hopes the book will move people and cause discussions regarding the complexities of the time period.
“For Cal Poly students, I would hope the book would cause a lot of contemplation about sex, gender and race,” Barker said.
Donald Ryujin, the acting department head chair for ethnic studies, said prejudices towards interracial relations will still remain as long as some racism exists. He said people are not meant to be mean or evil, but that their culture instills stereotypes in them because of the differences that exist.
“Some of it is non-conscious,” Ryujin said. “It is hidden in the fabric of the culture that one group is a little less humane towards the other group.”
Barker was invited to read at Cal Poly by her good friend, professor Kevin Clark. He said her latest book is very provocative and interesting, since the rhythm and flow of the poems are created by the sentence and not the line breaks.
“It’s really remarkable how she weaves the races and two people together,” Clark said. “Each poem comments back and forth on each other to create the story.”
Barker’s reading is sponsored by a program called WriterSpeak, which has brought numerous recognized poets and writers to Cal Poly for over two decades. Clark said the program is run by Cal Poly Arts and financed by the College of Liberal Arts and the English Department.
“The purpose of the program is to expose students at Cal Poly to the best poets and fiction writers of the era,” Clark said.
Clark incorporates Barker’s latest book into his advanced poetry class. He said his advanced poets learn from her book through class and benefited from hearing the work presented in her own voice.
One such student who appreciated hearing Barker’s story was English senior Elise Denes.
“Her book is an impressive use of prose and chronicle of the time period,” Denes said. “Racial barriers still hold true today.”
Another English senior was also impressed with Barker’s reading. Amy Thrash said it makes a difference in hearing a poet read their own work since they know how it is supposed to sound. She said she enjoyed how Barker offers no answers regarding racial relations.
Barker said she is excited to get back to work and already has another manuscript in progress.
“I’m eager to get back to new poems,” Barker said. “There are lots of new poems in the hopper.”