# Jack Collom

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{{Short description|American poet, essayist, and creative writing pedagogue}}
{{Infobox writer 
| image         = 2017 Jack Collom (photo by Ken Abbott).jpg
| caption       = Jack Collom, was an American poet, essayist, and educator. 
| image_size    =
| alt           =
| birth_name    = John Aldridge Collom
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1931|11|8}}
| birth_place   = [Chicago](/source/Chicago), Illinois, U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2017|7|2|1931|11|8}}
| death_place   = [Boulder, Colorado](/source/Boulder%2C_Colorado), U.S.
| occupation    = {{flatlist|
*Poet
*teacher
*essayist
}}
| education = [Colorado A&M](/source/Colorado_A%26M)<br>[University of Colorado Boulder](/source/University_of_Colorado_Boulder), BA and MA
| awards     = NEA Poetry Fellowship (1980, 1990)<ref name="dailycamera.com">Bounds, Amy (July 3, 2017) {{cite web|url=http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_31113500/jack-collom-boulder-poet-and-educator-remembered-great|title=Jack Collom, Boulder poet and educator, remembered for 'a great run of a life'|date=3 July 2017|publisher=digitalcamera.com}}</ref>
| notableworks  =
| spouse        = Edeltraud Maria Teresia Hopps (div. 1974)<br />Mara Meshak (div.)<br /> Jennifer Heath
| children      = Nathaniel, Christopher, Franz, Sierra
}}
'''John Aldridge Collom''' (November 8, 1931 – July 2, 2017) was an American poet, essayist, and creative writing [pedagogue](/source/pedagogue). Included among the twenty-five books<ref name="eventful.com">{{cite web|url=http://denver.eventful.com/events/thepoetisin-poetinresidence-jack-collom-/E0-001-047053757-7|title="The Poet Is In" Poet-in-residence Jack Collom|website=Eventful|access-date=2017-07-04|archive-date=2017-07-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705191414/http://denver.eventful.com/events/thepoetisin-poetinresidence-jack-collom-/E0-001-047053757-7|url-status=dead}}</ref> he published during his lifetime were ''Red Car Goes By: Selected Poems 1955–2000''; ''Poetry Everywhere: Teaching Poetry Writing in School and in the Community''; and ''Second Nature'', which won the 2013 [Colorado Book Award](/source/Colorado_Book_Awards) for Poetry.<ref name="naropa">{{cite web|url=http://www.naropa.edu/faculty/jack-collom.php|title=Jack Collom|website=www.naropa.edu|access-date=2017-07-04|archive-date=2017-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702213146/http://www.naropa.edu/faculty/jack-collom.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the fields of education and creative writing, he was involved in eco-literature, [ecopoetics](/source/ecopoetics), and writing instruction for children.

==Life and work==
Jack Collom was born John Aldridge Collom in [Chicago](/source/Chicago) on November 8, 1931.<ref name="tributes.com">{{cite web|url=http://crist-mort.tributes.com/dignitymemorial/obituary/Jack-Aldridge-Collom-104946242|title=Jack Collom Obituary – Boulder, Colorado – Crist Mortuary|website=crist-mort.tributes.com|accessdate=3 July 2017}}</ref><ref name="poetryfoundation.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jack-collom|title=Jack Collom|date=3 July 2017|website=Poetry Foundation}}</ref> He and his sister [Jane Wodening](/source/Jane_Wodening) grew up in the small town of [Western Springs, Illinois](/source/Western_Springs%2C_Illinois),<ref name="omniverse.us">{{cite web|url=http://omniverse.us/featured-essay-jack-collom/|title=Featured Essay: Jack Collom – OmniVerse|website=omniverse.us}}</ref> spent much of his time [birdwatching](/source/birdwatching),<ref name="woodlandpattern.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.woodlandpattern.org/archives/poems/?poem=139|title=Jack Collom · Poems · Woodland Pattern|website=www.woodlandpattern.org|access-date=2017-07-04|archive-date=2017-07-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704200225/http://www.woodlandpattern.org/archives/poems/?poem=139|url-status=dead}}</ref> and over the years became an inveterate bird-watcher.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-931157-01|title=''Red Car Goes By: Selected Poems 1955–2000'' (Reviewed)|publisher=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> Collom moved to [Fraser, Colorado](/source/Fraser%2C_Colorado) in 1947.<ref name="omniverse.us"/> He studied forestry at [Colorado A&M](/source/Colorado_A%26M) College where he earned a B.S. in 1952.<ref name="foundationforcontemporaryarts.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/jack-collom|title=Jack Collom :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts|website=www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org}}</ref> Afterwards, he spent four years in the [U.S. Air Force](/source/United_States_Air_Force)<ref name="foundationforcontemporaryarts.org"/> and he started writing poetry in 1955 while stationed in [Tripoli](/source/Tripoli%2C_Libya), Libya.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1990/0924/lpoet.html|title=New Twist for Nature Poetry|first=M. S.|last=Mason|date=24 September 1990|journal=Christian Science Monitor}}</ref> His unit was next stationed at [Neubiberg](/source/Neubiberg), a base just south of [Munich](/source/Munich) in [Bavaria](/source/Bavaria). It is there he met his first wife (a native German) in 1956. Collom moved back to the US after his discharge from the military but soon returned to Germany for a brief time to get married. They naturalized back to America in 1959 where he worked in factories for twenty years while writing poetry.<ref name="woodlandpattern.org"/>

Collom received his B.A. in English (1972) and M.A. in English literature (1974) from the [University of Colorado Boulder](/source/University_of_Colorado_Boulder)<ref name="foundationforcontemporaryarts.org"/> where he had studied on the [G.I. Bill](/source/G.I._Bill_of_Rights).<ref name="woodlandpattern.org"/> In 1974, he began teaching in the "Poetry-in-the-Schools" programs in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska.<ref name="kgnu"/> In 1980, he began teaching poetry in the public schools of New York City,<ref name="kgnu"/> by way of the "Poets In Public Service" and "Teachers & Writers" programs.<ref name="jacketmagazine.com">{{cite web|url=http://jacketmagazine.com/36/r-collom-hejinian-rb-grenier.shtml|title=Jacket 36 – Late 2008 – Jack Collom and Lyn Hejinian: "Situations, Sings" (collaborative poems), reviewed by Robert Grenier|website=jacketmagazine.com}}</ref> Collom continued to teach creative writing to children for the next 35 years in both elementary and secondary schools,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thecafereview.com/fall-2014-poets-jack-collom/|title=Jack Collom – The Cafe Review|date=12 January 2017|publisher=}}</ref> where he developed a pedagogy for this type of educational approach.<ref name="eventful.com"/>

{{quote|I think of my general approach as organic, inductive, building from the children's familiars up, rather than teaching them intricate forms to master, or attempting to initiate them into a sophisticated sensibility. Time enough for that, and to avoid its pitfalls, when and if they have written personally for some while, and of course writing personally in some strong sense is what the most developed poetry still is. Heavy programming from me at this point would draw out less of their particular gifts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/onteaching/how-i-teach-poetry-schools|title=How I Teach Poetry in the Schools|first=Jack|last=Collom|date=April 23, 2014|website=poets.org}}</ref>}}

Subsequently, [Teachers & Writers Collaborative](/source/Teachers_%26_Writers_Collaborative) published three books of Collom's essays and commentary on this experience (which included the young students' poems), notably ''Poetry Everywhere'' and ''Moving Windows''.<ref name="woodlandpattern.org"/>

From 1966 to 1977, he published the work of many writers in a [little magazine](/source/Literary_magazine) called "The".<ref name="kgnu"/> He was twice awarded Poetry Fellowships from the [National Endowment for the Arts](/source/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts)<ref name="jacketmagazine.com"/> and received a [Foundation for Contemporary Arts](/source/Foundation_for_Contemporary_Arts) Grants to Artists award (2012).<ref name="foundationforcontemporaryarts.org" /> From 1986 until his death in 2017, Collom taught at [Naropa University](/source/Naropa_University)'s [Jack Kerouac School](/source/Jack_Kerouac_School) of Disembodied Poetics as an [adjunct professor](/source/Professor)<ref name="naropa" /><ref name="poetryfoundation.org" /> where he shaped Writing Outreach, a community creative-writing project, into a course.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.jackkerouacschool.org/2013/02/13/folio-jks-faculty-reading-to-celebrate-recent-publications/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180406040329/http://www.jackkerouacschool.org/2013/02/13/folio-jks-faculty-reading-to-celebrate-recent-publications/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=April 6, 2018|title=FOLIO: JKS Faculty Reading to Celebrate Recent Publications|last=administrator|date=February 13, 2013|publisher=Jack Kerouac School /Folio: Events Newsletter}}</ref><ref name="naropa.edu">{{cite web|url=http://magazine.naropa.edu/2011-fall/features/from-nature-to-nurture.php|title=From Nature to Nurture|website=magazine.naropa.edu|date=25 May 2023}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> In 1989 he pioneered Eco-Lit,<ref name="corpse.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_9/critiques/collom.htm|title=Exquisite Corpse – A Journal of Letters and Life|website=www.corpse.org}}</ref> one of the first ecology literature courses ever offered in the United States.<ref name="dailycamera.com" /> Some of his accomplishments as an environmentalist-poet are documented in ''American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.credoreference.com/book/ghael|title=American environmental leaders from colonial times to the present|first1=Anne|last1=Becher|first2=Joseph|last2=Richey|date=5 July 2017|publisher=Grey House Pub.|via=Open WorldCat}}</ref> His [nature writing](/source/nature_writing)s and essays about the environment were published in various venues, including ''ecopoetics'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ecopoetics.wordpress.com|title=ecopoetics|website=ecopoetics}}</ref> ''The Alphabet of Trees: A Guide to Writing Nature Poetry'',<ref name="corpse.org"/> and ''ISLE'', the journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment.<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/7/2/243/731906/In-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext Interdiscip Stud Lit Environ (2000) Volume 7 (Issue 2): 243]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/7.2.243
Published: 01 July 2000</ref>

He read and taught throughout the United States, in Mexico, [Costa Rica](/source/Costa_Rica), Austria, Belgium, and Germany. In 2008, he was the plenary speaker at the "Poetic Ecologies" conference at the [Université Libre de Bruxelles](/source/Universit%C3%A9_Libre_de_Bruxelles).<ref name="omniverse.us"/> In 2009, he led a three-week Creativity and Aging Program at Woodland Pattern in [Milwaukee, Wisconsin](/source/Milwaukee%2C_Wisconsin).<ref name="woodlandpattern.org"/>

He worked with numerous dancers, visual artists and musician/composers, and recorded three CDs: ''Calluses of Poetry''<ref>''Calluses of Poetry'', audiobook/CD produced by Treehouse Press, 1996 {{ISBN|9780965187800}}</ref> and ''Colors Born of Shadow'',<ref>''Colors Born of Shadow'', audiobook/CD produced by Treehouse Press, 1999 ASIN B000F7G0IY</ref> with Ken Bernstein,<ref name="kgnu"/> and ''Blue Yodel Blue Heron'', with Dan Hankin and Sierra Collom.<ref>{{cite book|title=Blue Yodel Blue Heron|publisher=Baksun Books|year=2002|isbn=9781887997539}}</ref>

In 2001, his adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado, declared and celebrated a "Jack Collom Day".<ref name="auto"/>

==Personal life==
{{quote box
 |quote =I felt, and events have born out, that eco-lit was really an upcoming topic for the world. I was motivated by the cause of ecology—saving nature and ourselves from our own foolish extinction through pollution and overuse of resources—and the fact that it's an art with admirable philosophical achievements. But also for the fun of it. Humor is an important part of the class, and we can go from discussing the most tragic thing to cracking jokes. I'm for that kind of juxtaposition, which sometimes goes against expectations because people want to look upon nature very solemnly due to its beauty or endangered status. But I think humor is as deep as anything.
 |source = —''Jack Collom''<ref name="naropa.edu"/>
 |width = 22em
 |style = background:light blue;
}}

Collom was married three times. He had three sons by his first marriage. He had a daughter through a second marriage.<ref name="kgnu"/>

Jack Collom died in Boulder, Colorado on July 2, 2017.<ref name="tributes.com"/><ref name="dailycamera.com"/><ref name="kgnu">KGNU News (July 3, 2017) {{cite web|url=http://news.kgnu.org/2017/07/poet-jack-collom-1931-2017/|title=Poet Jack Collom: 1931–2017|date=3 July 2017|publisher=kgnu.org}}</ref>

==Selected publications==
;Poetry
*''Arguing with Something Plato Said''. (Rocky Ledge Editions, 1990) {{ISBN|9780961437831}}
*''The Task''. (Baksun Books, 1996) {{ISBN|9781887997065}}
*''Red Car Goes By: Selected Poems 1955–2000''. (Tuumba Press, 2001) {{ISBN|9781931157018}}
*''Exchanges of Earth and Sky''. (Fish Drum Press, 2006) {{ISBN|9781929495085}}
*''Situations, Sings'' (with [Lyn Hejinian](/source/Lyn_Hejinian)). (Adventures in Poetry, 2007)<ref>[Mohammad, K. Silem](/source/K._Silem_Mohammad) (April 23, 2008) {{cite web|url=http://www.constantcritic.com/k_silem_mohammad/situations-sings/|title=Constant Critic, Review: ''Situations, Sings''|website=www.constantcritic.com}}</ref> {{ISBN|9780976161240}}
*''Second Nature''. (Boulder, Co: Instance Press, 2012) {{ISBN|9781887997270}}
*''Dot's Diner'' (with [Elizabeth Robinson](/source/Elizabeth_Robinson)). (Colorado Springs, Co: Further Other Book Works, 2017) {{ISBN|9780989313278}}

;Nonfiction
*''Poetry Everywhere: Teaching Poetry Writing in School and in the Community'' (with [Sheryl Noethe](/source/Sheryl_Noethe)). (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1994; 2nd edition, 2007) {{ISBN|9780915924691}}
*(contributor) ''Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignments,'' (ed. [Ron Padgett](/source/Ron_Padgett)). (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1995; 2nd edition, 2007) {{ISBN|9780915924455}}
*(editor) ''A Slow Flash of Light: An Anthology of Poems about Poetry''. (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2008) {{ISBN|9780915924561}}
*''Moving Windows: Evaluating the Poetry Children Write''. (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000) {{ISBN|9780915924554}}
*(contributor) ''The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing'' (Illinois), 2013<ref>{{cite book|title=The &NOW AWARDS 2: The Best Innovative Writing|editor-first=Davis|editor-last=Schneiderman|date=25 May 2013|publisher=Lake Forest College Press|isbn = 978-0982315644}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/90338/on-sound-and-rhythm On Sound and Rhythm: A Way to Start Teaching Poetry to Children and Young Adults]  – an excerpt from  ''Poetry Everywhere: Teaching Poetry Writing in School and in the Community.''
*[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70244/learning-the-chant-poem Learning the Chant Poem] an excerpt from ''Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignments.''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collom, Jack}}
Category:1931 births
Category:2017 deaths
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:21st-century American poets
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:University of Colorado Boulder alumni
Category:Naropa University faculty
Category:American nature writers
Category:American conservationists
Category:American male poets
Category:American naturalists
Category:American ornithologists
Category:Colorado State University alumni
Category:Environmental writers
Category:Writers from Chicago
Category:Poets from Colorado
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Writers from Colorado
Category:Acacia members
Category:United States Air Force airmen

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jack Collom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Collom) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Collom?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.