John Murillo Reads as Lamont Poet

Against a backdrop of towering bookshelves, Lamont Poet John Murillo breathed life into lyrical poems exploring racial violence, grief and trauma.

At the February 18 Lamont Poetry Reading, Murillo read from his poetry collections Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (2020) and Up Jump the Boogie (2010), as well as presented works by other poets, all with invigorating rhythm and intonation. Afterward, Murillo answered questions on his writing process, inspiration and goals in a live Q&A session.

English Instructor and Lamont Poet Committee Member Todd Hearon cited “voice” as the determining factor in each term’s Lamont Poet selection. “Is it a vital voice? Is it a necessary and urgent voice? An inspiring voice? Those are the kinds of voices we want to bring to campus to inspire the students,” Hearon said. “[Murillo] is one of the preeminent voices in American poetry right now. We wanted to take advantage of that new voice coming in, and his poetry is so timely to where we are as a culture [and] as a country right now.”

During the Q&A, Murillo revealed that he finds much of his inspiration in other poems. “[I] want to contribute to the conversation,” Murillo said. “There's this long tradition of people who really do some amazing work and if I can add something valuable to that conversation that has been taking place over the past few years, that's inspiring.”

Additionally, Murillo talked about his process for putting together his books. “I'm in the business of writing poems,” Murillo said. “I want to write the best poems I can and they don't always get there. For every poem that made it into the book, there are probably three or four that did not.” 

At the end, Murillo hoped his honesty and vulnerability would provide lessons for the audience. “Rather than trying to present a speaker who's washed clean of all these [flaws], I presented a speaker that is flawed,” Murillo said. “The idea that I'm pushing back against is… if] any of us is ever a wholly good person or not. We’re not. You guys have already done some messed up stuff and if you haven’t you will.”

Lower Warren Lawrence anticipated learning how Murillo designs his poetry. “All [his poems] are dark subjects if I’m being blunt. I want to see where he gets his motivation, if it’s from his real life or some character,” Lawrence said. “I want to hear about him personally, about why he relates to the poem on a personal level and why he can write about it so vividly [and] accurately,” Lawrence added.

Following the assembly, lower Ophelia Bentley described how it felt to hear Murillo read his own poetry. “I think that his poems are amazing, but I always think there’s something special about them being not just read out loud, but read out loud the way he intended them for them to be.”

Upper Sophie Fernandez highlighted Murillo’s thoughtful Q&A responses. “As young writers, I think it is interesting to hear how authors think through their ideas and put them on paper. That’s always a common question that we ask when a poet comes to Exeter but I still think it’s super important,” Fernandez said. “I gained a new understanding of his language and intentions that were present within his poems.”

Upper Shantelle Subkhanberdina appreciated the ideas Murillo conveyed through his poems. “I think one of the remarkable things about Murillo’s poetry is how he manages to communicate themes of violence, political unrest and difficult truths through a lyrical lens. Many of his poems read like songs, and that’s something I’ve found very inspiring.”

Additionally, lower Weiyi Huang expressed that Murillo’s poetry “brings out all the details and makes you feel as if you’re in his fear… kind of how he feels at [that] exact moment.”

Lower Lara Muyombwe agreed that moments during which Murillo discusses hopelessness in his poems are especially impactful. “It is not something that I go through or something that people I talk to go through. It didn’t wake me up to it because I knew that it was there, but it tugged me back down to reality,” she said.

Lower Sofia Coelho described the human quality of the experiences Murillo’s poems tackle. “Murillo’s poems gave me an honest vision of how difficult it is to live as a Black American, and how often pain and hurt is thrown around and is embedded in Black lives,” she said. 

“It showed not only Murillo’s personal struggles, but it also addresses Black American systemic injustices. It shone a personal light in a very real and large problem today,” Coelho said.

Upper Janessa Vargas elaborated on the personal connection. “It was empowering and inspiring. As someone who identifies as Latinx and has been witness to a lot of the cultural practices he talks about, but also some of the negative aspects of some of the trauma he talked about in his poetry, I found it extremely relatable not only on a cultural level but on a personal level. I really appreciated the fact that Exeter was able to bring a poet who doesn’t necessarily fit in with who we normally read.”

Teachers also had positive reactions to Murillo’s poetry reading. According to English Instructor Eimer Page, teachers agreed that Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry would be a common text for lowers. “It worked well with the course’s focus on racial identity, and provided many beautiful writing models for students to explore,” she said.

Page particularly liked Murillo’s use of poetic form. “His crown of sonnets is so powerful, especially when readers take the time to see how it is constructed,” she said. 

English Instructor Matthew Miller also expressed his admiration for Murillo’s creative interpretation of traditional poetry structures. “There’s loss and hurt in these poems but also fight and beauty and craftsmanship that comes [from] being a long time in the fight with no intention of going gently into that good night,” Miller said. “As with his poems, his generosity of spirit, his ability to weave from multiple traditions, from rap and hip hop to the villanelle or the Petrarchan sonnet… [he has] a kind of calm in his voice that comes only from knowing the storm.”

English Instructor Christina Breen appreciated that Murillo pays tribute to those he admires. “[What] I loved about his poems is that he’s very much in conversation with other artists, other poets, other musicians, painters, so his pieces are almost like a call and response,” Breen said.

Upon being asked what he wants his students to take away from Murillo’s poems, Miller said, “Possibility. Access to find their own way to hold their own call and response with the world… Poetry, to borrow from W.H. Auden, ‘can be a way of happening.’”

Murillo ended with what he wants readers to be left with after reading Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry. “If nothing else, I think I hope this collection allows people to allow themselves the permission… to mess up and be messed up.”