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“She seemed to be impressed when I did Dylan Thomas imitations,” he said.
Tonight, Armstrong, a professor at Winona State University since 1999, will celebrate the publication of his second collection of poetry, “Blue Lash,” with a reading and reception at the Book Shelf in Winona.
These days, Armstrong’s muse is Lake Superior.
When he was in seventh grade, Armstrong said, his family moved from southern Indiana to Kalamazoo, Mich. They drove to the Upper Peninsula, where he discovered the lake that is the subject of many of the poems in Blue Lash.
“The lake was just a powerful spiritual presence for me,” he said. “It was just so unbelievable to have that … great ocean right in the Midwest.”
In 1994, Armstrong was an artist in residence on Isle Royale, and some poems he wrote then make up a section of the book. Armstrong wrote many of the other poems during a week he spends in a cabin near Duluth each year.
Armstrong, 48, began studying creative writing as an undergraduate at Northwestern University in Chicago and continued at Western Michigan University while he worked toward a master’s degree in fine arts.
Most of the poems in Blue Lash are free verse, but Armstrong said he still looks to more formal poetry to keep his work tight.
“I’m always in love with the sonnet,” he said. “That’s kind of my base. Like jazz musicians go back to the blues, I’m always going back to formal poetry to remember what my lines are supposed to sound like.”
Now, when not teaching English at Winona State, Armstrong has turned his attention to the topic of climate and says his poems have become more political.
“I’m always reluctant to be too political,” he said. “But the crisis is really coming upon us. My impression is it’s going to be like World War II n everyone is going to have to take sides.”
If you go
What: Reading and book launch party for James Armstrong
When: 6 p.m. today
Where: The Bookshelf, 619 Huff St.
