 Poet Ken Hada
Ken Hada is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Languages at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he teaches courses in Humanities, American and Ethnic Literatures. He completed a Ph.D. at The University of Texas–Arlington in 2000. In addition to teaching at ECU, Hada directs the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival held on the ECU campus the first weekend of each April. He has served as a “Review Scholar” for the past two Red Dirt Book festivals in Shawnee. Also, Ken is the area chair for Literature: Eco-criticism and the Environment for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture meeting held annually in Albuquerque. Ken’s research interests and creative writing both increasingly merge in the areas of nature writing and ecology concerns, regionalism and the American west. Some of these publications include Southwestern American Literature, College Literature, Ethnic Studies Review, American Indian Culture and Research Journal.
Hada was raised in rural settings in Oklahoma and Arkansas where he first developed his passion for the outdoors, for flyfishing, canoeing, kayaking and all other kinds of activities that define human interdependence with nature. This association defines much of his poetry. Ken’s poems have appeared in Oklahoma Today, Poesia, RE:AL, Flint Hills Review, Crosstimbers, Westview, Desert Candle, Kansas City Voices, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, among others. His new book collection, The Way of the Wind, is available from Village Books Press. For additional information on this or other Performing Arts Studio programs, phone 405-307-9320. Office and Gallery Hours in the Depot are Tues-Fri 8:00 am to 3:00 pm and 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday. Cimarron A wildness that will not fade
calls in the crimson twilight.
Our tangled roots of dirt and desire and denial
are embedded in cyclical rhythms linked to the full moon
shining over Cherokee County
pulling the Cimarron River along to the Arkansas
filtering sand from clay
leaving the heron a feast, the mallard a respite. Survivors know these rhythms
these voices calling out in wild red darkness. Ken Hada
|
