M.L. Liebler is the author of fifteen books and has been on faculty in the English department at Wayne State University since 1980. I interviewed him over ten years ago when I was working as a freelance writer for the St. Clair Shores. He’s St. Clair Shores’ (his hometown) first Poet Laureate. The next time I saw Liebler is when he was a keynote writer for the Detroit Working Writers. We’ve stayed connected since then.
Liebler’s recent book, Respect: The Poetry of Detroit Music, is a collection of poems and lyrics that shows the global impact of Detroit’s music scene – Grammy winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and poet laureates. Included are icons such as Eminem, June Jordan, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Rita Dove, Jack White, Robbie Robertson, Paul Simon, Nikki Giovanni, Philip Levine, Sasha Frere-Jones, Patricia Smith, Billy Bragg, Andrew Codrescu, Toi Derricotte, and Cornelius Eady.
Here’s a poem from M.L. Liebler, called “Rhythm and Blues Fire.”
Tonight gasoline pours
Creating a fire of rhythm
And blues igniting an engine
Of sweet soul dreams
Warm, dark pruple
Late summer night songs
That respect themselves
Hot harmonies on an Eastside Detroit street
Falcons singing in the front
Room and across the street
And a young boy hears
Their call and response.
It’s a new church
It’s Detroit. It’s late 1959
And it’s our good fortune to have
Not hymns for our northern souls.
I found so many other wonderful poets in this book, including a dear friend, Zilka Joseph. Zilka was born in Bombay, India, and grew up and was educated in Calcutta. She moved to Chicago with her husband in 1997 and currently lives in Michigan. She has been nominated twice for a Pushcart prize.
Other works by Liebler include award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream (Wayne State University Press 2008) featuring poems written in and about Russia, Israel, Germany, Alaska and Detroit. He has read and performed his work in Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Russia, China, France, UK, Macao, Italy, Germany, Spain, Finland and most of the 50 States. Aside from teaching at Wayne State University, he is the founding director of both The National Writer’s Voice Project in Detroit and the Springfed Arts: Metro Detroit Writers Literary Arts Organization.
For more information and upcoming events, visit http://www.mlliebler.com