Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a focus in creative writing, and going on to receive a master’s degree from NC State’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing, Tyree Daye’s creativity has led him down a path not typically travelled. The Youngsville, North Carolina native is now an award-winning poet and regularly teaches English courses at St. Augustine’s University.
Technician had the pleasure of sitting down with Daye to talk poetry, creativity and life after schooling.
As a modern-day poet, what does your day-to-day life look like?
My day-to-day is life is just like anyone else’s. I wake up and go to work. I teach at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh. I work, then I come home and then that’s usually when I write — at night after work. I always try to write something before I go to sleep.
During the day I have office hours, so I’m always reading poetry. I teach a creative writing class and I need to be reading and always thinking about lesson plans, so I’m always reading something. And then at night I write. So that’s the schedule. I’ll also wash dishes and take out the trash, and do normal everyday things.
What other courses do you teach at St. Augustine’s?
I teach Intro to Creative Writing, and I also teach this critical writing seminar on pop culture, and I teach two sections of English 131, which is just English composition.
Which class is your favorite to teach?
I would say Intro to Creative Writing because, well, it’s creative writing. But the pop culture class is also really great. I broke that class down into week-long sections, so the first week we looked at black womanhood by looking at Beyonce’s visual album “Lemonade.” We also looked at some of the work by bell hooks and her discussion of black womanhood. We read an article by Diamond Sharp from VICE Media talking about Beyonce’s album. The class really loved that section, and it resulted in some great discussion.
How long have you been writing poetry?
I’ll say, seriously, maybe since my junior year at NC State as an undergrad. I started writing poems in high school but I won’t call them poems. I think back about them, and they weren’t really poems. They didn’t the have the elements that a poem must have, so I like to say since my junior year in college.
Do any particular authors or people inspire you?
I’ll say I always find myself going back to Larry Levis for his way to take an object and really break it open, and his way to move it through time and tone. I’ve also always been drawn to Lucille Clifton and Etheridge Knight. I think Etheridge Knight controls tone in the way he plays the blues in his poems through the language he uses. It’s really great.
Are there any themes that you tend to include in your poetry?
In my first book “River Hymns” there’s a lot of water in my poems. My dad shows up in my poems a lot, usually in the form of a memory and then that memory is attached to the speaker. And the speaker then usually shows his identity through these memories. I grew up around a lot of open fields, so those constantly show up in my poems as well. Usually in my poems when I place a person or an object in a field it becomes magical, so these fields are magical landscapes or places. Tobacco shows up in my work a lot. So, family and memory are the two main themes I usually focus on.
How did the MFA in creative writing program shape you as a writer?
It was everything. Dorianne Laux taught me throughout most of my undergraduate career. But going into grad school, it’s a whole other level. Workshops in poetry are intense. You read a poem out loud, and then the next three people beside you talk about it and then your teacher does in front of everyone. They say what they like and what they don’t like and sometimes it crushes you. But, you understand that you’re there because you trust their opinion. You’re there to study under them. So you take what they say, and you work on your art and your craft.
What are your plans for the future? Are you currently writing anymore poems?
Yes, I’m writing new poems — but the process is very slow. I’m in no rush to put out anything. I’m just trying to write and discover and search. I’m working right now at St. Augustine’s University but I won’t be there in the fall. I have a writing residency that I have to do called the Amy Clampitt Writing Residency. So, I’m going to Massachusetts for six months with my wife where I’m just going to write. Then I’m coming back to St. Augustine’s next spring. When I’m gone I’m probably going to shut off all my social media and just go inside the cave of myself.
Why is poetry important to you?
It’s the only thing I have.
This Q&A has been edited for clarity
