John Kruschke has done a lot of writing in academia — journal articles and a textbook on statistical analysis — but in retirement, he’s taken up poetry. Kruschke, who retired from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 2022, has published poems in SAGE Magazine and Tipton Poetry Journal.
He will read some of his poems Sunday at the Writer’s Guild at Bloomington’s Last Sunday Poetry & Open Mic. The IDS spoke with Kruschke ahead of the reading at Morgenstern Books.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
IDS: How did you get involved with “Last Sunday” poetry reading?
Kruschke: Right. So, I guess I could start by saying I retired three years ago, and I had many, many projects in mind. Poetry writing was not among them, but through a series of sort of happy accidents, I got into some writing and some poetry and I figured, ‘Gee, I'd like to know what's going on in the community in poetry’ and the Writers Guild at Bloomington has this monthly meeting. They have another, they call it ‘2nd Thursday Spoken Word’ series.
So, I just thought the local writers’ guild would be a wonderful way to see what people are doing in poetry and to see if I could fit in. And so, I just started attending their meetings and found it very encouraging.
IDS: What has the experience of reading at some of those open mic nights been like?
Kruschke: Oh, it's a lot of fun. It is a very welcoming community. And so, you have a huge variety of people, reading a huge variety of poetry coming from very different motivations. Some can be very personal and emotional. Some will be political, some will be inspirational, some will be humorous. And so, I think once you've been to a few and you see the variety of people at open mic, then you realize, ‘You know, I guess I could do this too. So, I'll get up there and try it myself.’
IDS: Could you tell me a little bit about your work? Are there particular themes or styles that come up a lot?
Kruschke: There are so many different kinds of poetry, right? You know, as many kinds as there are poets, really. You know, you could say ‘Gee, I'm a musician, but there are so many genres of music, you know, from pop to death metal to opera to jazz and, and country. And there's that same kind of spectrum in poetry. So, you can like some poems and find other poems (that) just don't really resonate at all, but that's perfectly okay. And that variety is really nice.
I tend to have very carefully crafted poems, and I go through endless revisions before I'm finally settled at all. So, I tend to like some kinds of formal elements in my own poems. But they're not all strictly formal. Some are free verse. But I do like structure and craft. And then in terms of content, my own poems tend toward, sometimes the spiritual, the expressions of gratefulness or awe, as opposed to expressions of grief or trauma. But many other poets do find an outlet in their poetry for grief and trauma, as well as many other topics. So, I really do just want to emphasize that huge variety in poetry that one encounters.
IDS: You said that poetry writing began after your retirement, tell me more.
Kruschke: In your email, you suggested the question ‘Was there sort of any overlap between my professional interests and the writing of poetry?’
And for me the answer is yes, very much, but at an abstract level. What I loved most about being a professor was the creative freedom. And that's creative freedom in research and in teaching.
In fact, in my final semester at IU, when, you know, most faculty would just kind of teach the same old course and coast on through, I created two new courses in my final semester, just because I love putting together new topics and structuring those topics in ways to scaffold the concepts in interesting, creative ways. And it's that same drive for creativity, a creative outlet, that really drives the poetry as well.
IDS: What semester and year did you retire?
Kruschke: Let's see. I retired in June of 2022.
IDS: Okay.
Kruschke: I really appreciated being a professor exactly for the reason I described. You know, I love the creative freedom, but there are so many other projects I wanted to pursue. I could give you a few other ties to my work as a professor.
One of the things I've done is an advanced textbook in statistics. Even though I was in Psychological and Brain Sciences, I wrote a book in Bayesian statistics, and in the first two editions at the beginning of each chapter I included a kind of humorous poem to introduce the chapter. So, there were like — in the second edition — like 25 poems for the 25 chapters, but I thought, ‘Gee, if I write another chapter, I can write another poem.’ Extra motivation. Yeah. Otherwise, though, there was not a lot of poetry writing before I retired.
IDS: What pieces are you planning to read at this Sunday's poetry reading?
Kruschke: I've put together a list of nine poems because we're allowed 20-25 minutes each. Each featured speaker is given that much time. And so, I've tested (it) all out; these nine poems should take just the right amount of time. I guess the poem I would call my favorite so far that I've written is called ‘Honor Among Sleeves.’ It's available on my website.
IDS: How did you go about selecting which poems you were going to read aloud?
Kruschke: I think if you're going to take up somebody else's time, you know, if you're going to burn a few minutes of somebody else's life with your poem, I would hope the poem would be at least somewhat entertaining or engaging or thought provoking. You know, something that makes using up their few minutes not a total waste. So, I tried to pick out poems that a listener or a reader would find at least engaging or entertaining or thought provoking.
