2008 Woodie Awards
VA Tech professor writes poems about shooting
U-Wire
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Features
(U-WIRE) BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University assistant English Professor Bob Hicok wrote five poems recently published in the September/October issue of American Poetry Review.
One in particular describes his guilt for not doing more to prevent former student Seung-Hui Cho from killing 32 people and then himself on April 16, 2007.
"Bob is one of the best poets in America, and that's not an overstatement," director of creative writing Professor Ed Falco said.
"He's published eight books in just 45 years and was one of five finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry in 2001."
Falco is a personal friend of Hicok and said he knows him and his poetry well.
While in Hicok's English class in spring 2006, Cho wrote a play about a student who plots a school shooting. Hicok voiced his concerns about Cho to Lucinda Roy, English department head.
Roy declined comment on this incident. Much of the poem, called, "So I know," includes thoughts about Cho, notably a line in which the speaker expresses his wishes that he would've taken Cho's life and then his own to prevent the deaths of many more.
"Maybe I should've shot the kid and then myself given the math. 2 < 33," the poem reads.
Hicok also conveys his negative feelings about the media in the poem, speaking of the extensive attention given to Virginia Tech after the shooting.
Hicok has refused to talk to the media about Cho's writings, in addition to his own.
"No one really wanted to talk to them," Falco said, referring to the media after April 16. "But Bob did everything he was supposed to do. He fully cooperated with the FBI and the police, just as we all did."
Another part of the poem speaks to how some may not feel comfortable with him writing poems about the tragedy so soon after it took place. "Too soon people will say, so what. This is what I do," the poem reads.
Erika Meitner, assistant professor of English, said she thinks this part of the poem is very self-reflective and reflects the honesty of the poem.
Meitner, who also had poetry published in a recent issue of American Poetry Review, said the quality of work in these publications is extremely high and that "So I know" is no exception.
"It was an excellent and devastating poem," Meitner said. "I was incredibly moved when I read it."
The poem ends with the word "suddenly" on a line of its own.
One in particular describes his guilt for not doing more to prevent former student Seung-Hui Cho from killing 32 people and then himself on April 16, 2007.
"Bob is one of the best poets in America, and that's not an overstatement," director of creative writing Professor Ed Falco said.
"He's published eight books in just 45 years and was one of five finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry in 2001."
Falco is a personal friend of Hicok and said he knows him and his poetry well.
While in Hicok's English class in spring 2006, Cho wrote a play about a student who plots a school shooting. Hicok voiced his concerns about Cho to Lucinda Roy, English department head.
Roy declined comment on this incident. Much of the poem, called, "So I know," includes thoughts about Cho, notably a line in which the speaker expresses his wishes that he would've taken Cho's life and then his own to prevent the deaths of many more.
"Maybe I should've shot the kid and then myself given the math. 2 < 33," the poem reads.
Hicok also conveys his negative feelings about the media in the poem, speaking of the extensive attention given to Virginia Tech after the shooting.
Hicok has refused to talk to the media about Cho's writings, in addition to his own.
"No one really wanted to talk to them," Falco said, referring to the media after April 16. "But Bob did everything he was supposed to do. He fully cooperated with the FBI and the police, just as we all did."
Another part of the poem speaks to how some may not feel comfortable with him writing poems about the tragedy so soon after it took place. "Too soon people will say, so what. This is what I do," the poem reads.
Erika Meitner, assistant professor of English, said she thinks this part of the poem is very self-reflective and reflects the honesty of the poem.
Meitner, who also had poetry published in a recent issue of American Poetry Review, said the quality of work in these publications is extremely high and that "So I know" is no exception.
"It was an excellent and devastating poem," Meitner said. "I was incredibly moved when I read it."
The poem ends with the word "suddenly" on a line of its own.
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