In the warm amber lights of La Divina Italian Cafe, light jazz music played over the speakers as a cool breeze entered through the open door. In the front corner sat a microphone, waiting in anticipation for the three artists about to perform that night.
This past Saturday, Feb. 7, was Poetry + Music night. Local singer-songwriter and LSU instructor Eric Schmitt provided the music; he sang folk ballads about love and heartbreak. New Orleans resident Justin Lacour provided a bit of comic relief with selections from his poetry book “A Reading from the Book of Panic.”
Making his Baton Rouge debut for his second poetry book, however, was Jesse DeLong.
DeLong currently teaches at LSU, but his journey began somewhere much colder. DeLong hails from northern Idaho and western Montana, a far cry from the Deep South. He prefers the mild winters here, such as the one we are in now. Going outside in the colder months is a luxury most southerners do not know they have. The warmer months are what he missed though.
“The weather is 100% different,” DeLong said. “It’s really nice and cool in the summer there. You can actually sit outside all summer and enjoy being outside.”
Ultimately, DeLong decided to trade the brutal winters for muggy sweltering summers. The summers were not the only thing heating up. After finishing up his master’s degree at the University of Alabama, love paved the way for his next big move.
“I followed my girlfriend at the time from Alabama to Baton Rouge,” said DeLong. “That’s how I sort of made my way to Baton Rouge, because my girlfriend at the time was from here.”
This past love put DeLong on the path to LSU. It seems that love in a greater sense inspires his work from all parts of his life — love for poetry, past loves, family, the English department and his colleagues here at LSU. All of this coalesced into the creation of his second poetry book “The Vinegar In Our Hearts.”
This book is one that has been a long time coming. DeLong was working on this one since his time living in Alabama. It follows the story of a man and his failed relationship with a lover named Bird. He uses this narrative to tackle popular culture’s ideas of love and relationships, and how trying to live up to them is what leads to many couple’s downfall.
“When we try and enact those false ideals of love that we see through Shakespeare and romantic comedies, that’s when a lot of times relationships fail,” DeLong said, “because people are just imitating rather than being themselves and letting the relationship grow organically.”
DeLong masterfully captures these ideas through the use of a poetic technique called the triolet. A triolet is a French form of poetry that consists of eight lines. The first line repeats twice and the second line repeats once, giving you five lines already accounted for.
DeLong described this form as one that is very lyrical and constrictive, which he believes highlights the aforementioned themes
“I wanted a strict form that had set rules in it, to mimic the way sometimes people try and fit their relationships into these strict forms or rules of our social constructs of ideas of romantic love…They can sort of become sort of astringent and acidic to us,” he said.
Even then, he admits to fudging with the structure a bit. That is what DeLong loves about poetry. He sees it as the most pure art form. With poetry, it challenges the structure of language and exists outside of the demands of trends.
Poetry is also something DeLong believes more people should engage with. It is a task that strengthens one’s focus and patience. He likens absorbing oneself in the art form to a relationship in itself.
“To really understand a poem and inhabit a poem, you have to give it intense focus and you have to be patient with it,” says DeLong, “And you have to be willing to give it that attention a couple of times.”
If you are inclined, you can start your poetry journey with Jesse DeLong’s new book “The Vinegar In Our Hearts,” available for purchase online.
