Brod Bagert is considered a poetic version of Johnny Appleseed.
He travels the country, planting seeds in students, teachers and parents about the urgency to make children's poetry come alive by performing it.He was in Salt Lake City Saturday as the keynote speaker at the annual Deseret Newspaper in Education workshop - "Jazzmania" - at the Delta Center.
Speaking to 425 teachers gathered from all over the state for the daylong event, Bagert, 49, of New Orleans, entertained and taught his dramatic method for poetry readings.
"Poems are made by fools like me," he said.
Bagert said he spends 14 solid, 24-hour days a year on airplanes while traversing the country to conferences and schools.
A former attorney, before poetry became his life's dream in 1982, Bagert said real poems should be a passionate exchange - not unlike putting your arms around someone and kissing them.
"When you perform children's poems, you've got to perform as a child," he said.
He illustrated that point by performing his first landmark poem, written for his daughter Colette, about learning how to ride a bicycle. His lively delivery became a one-man show, and for a time he had you convinced he wasn't a 230-pound man, but rather a kindergartner riding a bike without training wheels for the first, scary time.
Bagert's style puts the action and emotion back in children's poetry and makes it an oral art form. He said children really love poetry if it's presented properly, and that his approach turns the music back on.
He said teachers have become the main institution left in the country to bring children to adulthood. "Never before has so much been placed on teachers," he said.
He also spoke about a three-fold success formula in life: 1. Discover your talent. 2. Live your life with courage. 3. Realize that no dream ever comes true until it's been broken at least once.
Bagert has published several books of poetry. He believes one poem, "Contagious," exemplifies his youthful style the best:
Shut the windows
Lock the locks
Gretchen's got the chicken socks
So contagious
It's outrageous
She's really got the blues
I guess we should be glad
She didn't catch the chicken shoes.
- Deseret Newspaper Conference coordinator Sherry Madsen expressed appreciation to Dave Allred of the Utah Jazz and his colleagues for their generous support in assisting with the seventh annual Jazzmania.
"It's great way to offer educators in Utah something special." Madsen said.
After Bagert's address, teachers had classroom sessions, lunch and a courtside shoot-around event with Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan.