Steve McDonald, who spent 28 years at Palomar as a professor and dean, is set to publish a new collection of poems in 2018.<\/p>\n
CARLSBAD \u2014 At the head of the Carlsbad Library\u2019s community room on a recent afternoon, Steve McDonald smiled at each of the 22 people who had shown up for his poetry workshop as they explained what compelled them to write.<\/p>\n
Mostly retirement-age, the attendees would spend the next two hours sharing their stories, murmuring their admiration as McDonald read from his favorite poems, and testing out some lines of their own.<\/p>\n
It was the sort of thing McDonald did for more than 30 years as a college educator who spent the majority of his career at Palomar College.<\/p>\n
Hired in 1984, McDonald taught English at Palomar for 23 years, followed by five years as Dean of Languages and Literature. During his tenure at Palomar, he also co-authored several textbooks with fellow English Professor Bill Salomone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great career,\u201d McDonald recalled. \u201cIt was one of the best things I\u2019ve ever done. If I had to go back to working full-time again, I\u2019d go right back to teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having lived in Murrieta since 1989, McDonald now divides his time between writing, family life, poetry workshops, and working with twelve-step programs, which he has been doing for 32 years.<\/p>\n
Originally from San Marino, McDonald attended grad school at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California, Riverside (UCR) before teaching English at Mesa, Southwestern and Grossmont community colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we had our kids, I was working part-time, cobbling together a living by teaching at three community colleges at once,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat was a long seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had written his first poems as an undergraduate, and became more productive as a poet in grad school: \u201cI didn\u2019t publish anything, but I wrote some decent poems,\u201d he said. \u201cAround the age of 35 or so, life pretty much became life. I didn\u2019t write much more for another 10 or 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald and his wife, Marlyle, homeschooled their three daughters and, he said, \u201cThey all did their first two years at Palomar, and all three started rather young.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled taking his eldest daughter to campus with him for the first time to attend a dance class\u2014her first college experience, at the age of 14: \u201cSince I was a teacher there, I had my own office, and she would go to class and then come to where I was working. She was a smart, bright kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
As his daughters grew, McDonald had more time for writing, and he decided to take up poetry again after Salomone introduced him to the work of former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really liked what he was doing. I also thought, \u2018I could do that. I could write that.\u2019 Of course, I\u2019d been teaching and reading poetry all my life, but I hadn\u2019t read a lot of contemporary poetry. So I started reading it,\u201d said McDonald.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started writing (again), and then I had a poem published in Rattle<\/em>, a Southern California journal, and I thought, \u2018Oh, I can publish.\u2019 Then I started going to workshops and discovered that I really liked talking and working with other poets.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s first book of poetry, \u201cHouse of Mirrors,\u201d was published in 2013, followed by an award-winning chapbook, \u201cGolden Fish \/ Dark Pond\u201d in 2014. His latest collection, \u201cCredo,\u201d is due out next year.<\/p>\n \u201cMy writing is strongly infused with a sense of spirituality, and always has been,\u201d he said. \u201cThe study of spirituality, and what that means, is pretty much in most of my writing, one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that he is retired, with one grandchild on his knee, McDonald has devoted more time to poetry, with recent credits in a variety of literary journals across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that it seems like you\u2019re stumbling into it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then you go, \u2018Oh, this is where I belong. I fit here.\u2019 It was that kind of life experience that occurred. Then it was a challenge, because I really liked this life in poetry, but I also had my marriage, and I\u2019m a father, I write textbooks, and I\u2019m teaching. So how do I fit it in?<\/p>\n \u201cI think the more time a person can devote to writing, the more likely it is that his or her writing will succeed,\u201d he added. \u201cThere is always a balance to be struck between your family life and the writing life and your career.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald recalled a couple of the poems that he wrote during his years at Palomar with fondness: \u201cI have one that I wrote where a student walked in and had been sort of struggling the whole class and not doing any of the work and even plagiarized a paper, then came in and asked, \u2018If I ace the final, will I pass the class?\u2019 And the answer was no.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019ve got a poem where I observed a Health 100 class and happened to do it on the day when (the instructor) was doing a lecture and slides on sexually transmitted diseases,\u201d he said. \u201cWatching all of the students react to the slides was hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n During his workshop in Carlsbad, wearing jeans and tennis shoes, McDonald read a handful of easy-to-love poems, including one of his own, entitled, \u201cAutobiography.\u201d<\/p>\n He quoted Robert Frost, who said, \u201cNo surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader,\u201d and stressed the importance of imagery in a good poem.<\/p>\n Through images, he said, \u201cWe break the boundaries of what we think we\u2019re trying to do. I think that\u2019s what makes good poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"