Celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Gene Hirsch, poet

 

Those in the photo above met Saturday afternoon to celebrate the life of the late Dr. Gene Hirsch who was the founder of the writing program at the John C. Campbell Folk School in the early nineties. Because of his dedication to writing and writers, many poets, novelists, and creative nonfiction writers found their voices, and found the confidence and inspiration to write their stories in verse or in prose.

All of us present on Saturday told our story of how Gene influenced us. He was the most generous of people and taught poetry classes for free out of his cabin in Cherokee County NC.

He taught at the folk school every time he came down from his home in Pennsylvania where he worked as a geriatric doctor. Gene was a person who encouraged others. He never made anyone feel they were unworthy to call themselves poets and as a result so many people published their words that were found to be important to others. 

I am especially grateful to Gene Hirsch because the writing program at the John Campbell Folk School was where most of my writing education took place. I did not study creative writing in college but was once told I had an equivalent of a master's degree right here from the best writers anywhere. 

People like Valerie Nieman, Kathryn Byer, Darnell Arnoult, Steven Harvey, Carol Crawford, Nancy Simpson, and so many other wonderful teachers came to Brasstown NC, and taught us for a week and made a huge difference in our lives. 

I took one or two week-long classes every year for ten years and then I taught at the folk school. Thank you, Gene. You never knew how many people you touched because you convinced the director and the board of the folk school to include the craft of writing in their schedule.

Thanks to Mary Ricketson for organizing this memorial to Gene.

Poet, Dr. Eugene Z. Hirsch, 12/18/31 -- 9/3/20

This post written by Mary Ricketson

Gene Hirsch, MD, a poet of our mountains, died September 3, 2020, after a long struggle with cancer.  

He was a well-known writer in western North Carolina.  He taught poetry at John C. Campbell Folk School for many years, and helped Nancy Simpson start North Carolina Writers Network West 25 years ago or more.  He regularly attended critique groups, read at organized events, and taught small groups of poets at his home in Murphy.  Gene was teacher and mentor to be remembered.  He lived in Pittsburgh PA and in Murphy NC, and visited Murphy often, until May 2019.

Gene was known as a loving man who listened deeply to every poem from any kind of writer, rustic beginner to polished expert.  He cared about the craft of writing and also cared about the person writing the poem.  As a physician, he had a long career practicing medicine.  In later years he taught doctors and medical students to provide the best of medical and human help to dying patients.  The following is a quote, introduction to his long essay, Intimacy and Dying, written earlier this year, unpublished.

I am a retired geriatrician who, for thirty five years, taught humanistic values in Clinical Medicine to medical students and doctors. From 2000 to 2010, at Forbes Hospice in Pittsburgh, I guided students through the ancient clinical art of responding to struggles and needs of dying people. Among other curricular activities, with permission, we (2 -4 students and I) visited patients in their homes, not to learn procedures for obtaining medical histories, but for the specific purpose of listening to their thoughts, feelings, ordeals and supports. They understood that they were being placed in the role of teachers rather than patients. This proved to be important to all.

Gene kept his illness private, made no apology for that request.  He asked me to talk with him late in his dying process, asked me to be “ears to listen, for some day my dying to be worth my life.”  I will have more to say about that after I have settled enough to review the scratchy notes I kept of this time.  He also asked me to organize a memorial after his death. He said he wants to be remembered in our mountains.  Once the world is safe to gather in person, when the pandemic is over, we will have a memorial for memory, poems, and a celebration of his life.

His body has been cremated.  At some time, in respect for his request, his family will spread his ashes privately at his former home in Murphy.  He gave that home to his wife’s son and family, a family who loves the mountains and the privilege to vacation there. 

During the final months of Gene’s illness, he engaged the help of a friend and poet in Pittsburgh, Judy Robinson, to organize and seek publication of his poems.  The result of that effort is indeed a book, published 7-15-20, available from Amazon, details below.

Cards and words of sympathy may be sent to Gene's wife, Virginia Spangler, 139 Overlook Drive, Verona PA 15147.

In fond memory of Gene Hirsch,  

Mary Ricketson

Speak, Speak, pub July 15, 2020
Paperback $30, Amazon

Dr. Eugene Hirsch, Gene, to all who know him, has extended to me the privilege of editing his poetry, an assignment I accepted with pleasure. This collection, “Speak, Speak,” is the culmination of Gene’s long career of writing, and reflects the complexity of his mind and experience. As a physician/writer he joins a distinguished list, and in my opinion as a reader/editor, he earns his place among the others, notably Maugham, Chekhov, William Carlos Williams.

Judith R Robinson, editor

https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Gene-Hirsch/dp/939020240X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=gene+hirsch&qid=1598800059&sr=8-1

The Literary Hour to be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at John C. Campbell Folk School, in Brasstown, NC, features poets Gene Hirsch and Maren O. Mitchell

On Wednesday evening, May 18, 2016 at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and N.C. Writers' Network-West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. Normally scheduled for the third Thursday of the month, this month the event will be on Wednesday. Poets Dr. Eugene Hirsch and Maren Mitchell will be the featured readers, both of whom are accomplished poets. This should be an excellent program and greatly anticipated by writers and poets in our area.

Gene Hirsch is a physician who, for many years, has taught human values in patient care, and in dying people, to medical students and doctors. His major interests are people in health and sickness, and poetry. Hirsch initiated the writing program at John C. Campbell Folk School in1992 and, with Nancy Simpson, co-founded NC Writers’ Network West, and he has been active in both. Hirsch conducts workshops for interested poets twice a year, as well as Glenda Beall’s Writers Circle.

Gene’s poetry has appeared in medical and non-medical journals such as: Pharos (Medical Honor Society), Journal of the American Medical Assn., Hiram Poetry Review, Human Quest, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Anthologies include: Atahita Journal, Blood & Bone (poems by physicians), Behavioral Medicine, Crossing Limits (Afro-American and Jewish Poets), Tyranny of the Normal, and Echoes across the Blue Ridge. He has edited five volumes of Freeing Jonah (poetry from J.C. Campbell Folk School and the surrounding community) and two books. Two more books will appear this spring.

Maren O. Mitchell has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. For over twenty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

Although a native of North Carolina, Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany, as a child.. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband in Young Harris, Georgia, on the edge of the national forest.

Mitchell’s poems have appeared in Iodine Poetry Journal, The Lake (UK), Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Hotel Amerika, Southern Humanities Review, Town Creek Poetry, Pirene’s Fountain, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Skive (AU), The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Journal, The Arts Journal, The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V: Georgia & VII: North Carolina, Sunrise from Blue Thunder, and elsewhere. Work is forthcoming in Hotel Amerika, The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Crafty Poet II, Chiron Review, Poetry East, and Tar River Poetry.

Her nonfiction book is Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide (Line of Sight Press, 2012) www.lineofsightpress.com, available on Amazon.

Netwest Poetry Group

Tonight I returned to the Netwest Poetry Critique group after a long absence. It was good to be back home in the conference room at Tri-County Community College in Cherokee County, NC. Janice Moore is the facilitator for this group and has been our leader for many years. Janice is also one of the Netwest Representatives for Clay County. 

We discussed the history of this group that goes back about twenty years. Nancy Simpson, Netwest co-founder, told me that Dr. Gene Hirsch started this monthly group when he lived in Murphy two decades ago. After he moved away, Nancy took over the group which included prose and poetry writers. They eventually divided into two groups that meet monthly. Today we have a prose group, which includes all writing that is not poetry, and it is led by Bob Groves. The prose group meets on the second Thursday of the month. 

How fortunate we are in this mountain region to have dedicated members who continue our events through the years. I felt warm and fuzzy sitting down to share my poetry with old friends, writers I've known for years, writers whose families I know, and I am sure I will continue to go to these meetings in months to come. 

Without the eyes of other writers who see what I don't see in my own work, I would likely not have published anything. First drafts are not usually our best work so we need to have others read and give us feedback so we can tighten, cut, or do whatever is needed to make our final product the best it can be.

Thank you, Janice Moore, and all the poets at the meeting tonight. It was good to go home again. 

Book Launch for Living Above the Frost Line

The book launch party for Nancy Simpson's Living Above the Frost Line, New and Collected Poems, was fun and the audience enjoyed Nancy's reading and her Q & A after. I commented on how well the poems from her first books melded with the new poetry to unfold her life on the page.
We gathered at City Lights Books in Sylva last Sunday afternoon to honor Nancy and to celebrate the book.
I enjoyed talking with Gene Hirsch who was riding with Linda Kane a former Netwest member and poet. Dick Michner and Sandy were present, as was Rosemary Royston. The room was full of people that I didn't get to speak to, but was so happy to see purchasing Nancy's book as I know they will enjoy every word.
I took some pictures I will share.

A long line formed after Nancy read and talked about her writing

Many of our Netwest Poetry Group will remember Linda and her exquisite poetry.

Dr. Gene Hirsch always supports our writers when and where he can. We appreciate him.

Contact Carolina Wren Press to order Living Above the Frost Line or check your local Independent Book Store.