Pocket Full of Poems

Two separate organizations have placed poetry containers outside Mather and Pforzheimer Houses in an attempt to get Harvard students to think outside the box.

Mather resident tutor Michael Radich posted his box in October as an extension of the Mather reading group “di-verse, uni-verse.” The wooden Mather box, marked “Poems/Free/Please/Take/One,” encourages students who would not normally read poetry to do so.

Radich filled the box from a repertoire of around 300 poems recommended by various House members. Occasionally, he said, his nine-year-old daughter, Kelsey Jack, refills the box in exchange for a quarter.

Radich said he put up the box “for people who don’t normally encounter much poetry to get a little poetry in their day.” He placed it by the shuttle stop to encourage its use. And House Co-Masters Sandra Naddaff and Leigh Hafrey used House funds to pay for its installment by a team of University carpenters.

When asked about any affiliation between “di-verse, uni-verse” and the Pforzheimer box, Radich said “not to speak of, but the Pfoho person got the idea after hearing about our box, and contacted me to ask about how we had gone about it. I think they run things somewhat differently.”

According to Radich, Mather’s “di-verse, uni-verse” is “an informal group” with no officers or official members. During the fall term, the group met on Thursdays to read poems and discuss them.

He said they remain unaffiliated with any formal club or publication.

“These are people studying things other than literature who like poetry a lot,” Radich said. He added that the more traditional literary element has, for the most part, stayed away.

“The very serious poets and poetry readers seem to get plenty of poetry through their day jobs,” said Radich.

The temporary spokesperson for the temporarily named Pforzheimer “Poem Box Society” remains elusive about his House’s society and box.

Pforzheimer resident tutor Eric D. Bennett said the black mailbox labeled “Poems” was erected earlier this year—sometime in January or February—by House Superintendent Jim Gallivan. When asked who maintains the box, Bennett said, “maintenance, time cards—these are cobblestones on the byway to fascism.”

In actuality, Bennett estimated that the box dispenses “60 photocopies a week—and could move more, as there’s often an empty box by Saturday.”

Bennett described the poem box as a site for less conventional work.

Student contributors and “associates” include Advocate members, such as Sarah K. Burke ’05.

“Poets are sensitive, solitary and hate to be known, unless they’re highly known, or known in the biblical sense,” Bennett said.

For those wishing to be read, the Pforzheimer box awaits, though its current title of “Poems” might no longer be appropriate.

Bennett insisted that it be referred to by its new proper name.

“For the month of May the Poem Box Society had decided to honor former Harvard President Leonard Hoar (1630-1675) by renaming the Box in his honor. Until June please refer to it as the Hoar House Poem Box,” he wrote in an e-mail.