Mission College Students Are Poets And Know It

By Suzy Paluzzi

On June 23, a press conference was held to acknowledge the county’s first official poem with 100 lines selected from 500 entries. It is entitled “A Family Album, Santa Clara County, 2009.” Nils Peterson, the first poet laureate of Santa Clara County, has the well-deserved honor of pursuing a community project, among his other responsibilities as the chosen representative of the art.

“Not enough could ever be said of his (Peterson’s) skill in weaving all the …voices
together into one vast collective work,” remarks Steve Wetlesen, local poet. “If each of us was a musician with just our words and thoughts, he was our Conductor...,” Wetlesen
adds.

Susan Zeisler, Mission College English teacher, took a cue from the poet laureate and created her students’ own group poem about this area. More than 80 of Zeisler’s students participated in Nils Peterson’s original call for one line of nine to thirteen syllables. Peterson picked over 40 of the Mission College entries and he had to choose the best eight, so as to include people from all walks of life and ages in his 100-line collection. But the county poet laureate did advise Zeisler to follow his lead and create a poem of Mission College’s own.

The Mission College English students’ composite poem is called “What We See” and contains 48 lines. Tam Ngo, whose line was also chosen for the “A Family Album,” says that by taking part in the exercise, “ I did learn that poetry is just something that comes when it does. You write what you feel, not what you think. To me, it’s actually one of the most natural and human forms of writing.”

The poem “What We See” refers to places like Great America and includes Santa Clara.
From the odor of car fumes to the feel of the ocean breeze, the students capture the essence of the area.

Susan Zeisler guided her freshmen and sophomores to “find their own memorable angle” and instructed them to “write with all their senses and be aware of the sounds of words.” She has worked full-time at Mission for nine years.

“It is wonderful that the county is supporting the arts at a time when there are cutbacks,”
says Zeisler. “This is a proud moment.”

For more information, see www.sccgov.org/poetlaureate or contact Susan Zeisler at:
susan_zeisler@wvmccd.cc.ca.us