Award winning poet, Dave Livewell, ‘89, credits the faculty of La Salle University’s English Program with setting him on a lifelong path of poetry writing.

Dave Livewell, ‘89, has always been fascinated by words and poetry.   

“I was always interested in the power of language without thinking much about it,” he said, adding that he memorized lyrics to songs when he was young, and was entranced by the language of religious pieces when he was in Catholic grade school. “I loved stories and novels as well, but song lyrics and poems stood out. Their lines and compact nature gave them a kind of power—like a spring coiled with trapped energy. A poet I like, Richard Wilbur, once said that the power of the genie is bestowed by the tight confines of its bottle.”   

This love of words guided Livewell throughout his educational journey.   

As a student at Northeast Catholic High School, Livewell was encouraged by his teacher, Francis Ryan, Ed.D., ‘69, to consider La Salle University when thinking about his next steps. Shortly after Livewell became an Explorer, Ryan, who is now a professor emeritus, joined his former student at his new institution as a professor of American Studies.  

“I enjoyed my time at La Salle immensely. I had grown up in North Philly close to Temple University’s campus, but La Salle felt like an oasis or a beautiful and isolated island right in the middle of the neighborhoods I knew so well,” Livewell said. “The La Salle campus felt like home and valued the literature I loved.”   

Livewell, who was an English and philosophy major, was particularly drawn to the faculty in La Salle’s English Department. He noted that the late Claude Koch, ‘40, who was an associate professor of English for 40 years before being named professor emeritus upon retirement, was a driving force behind his choice in the program.  

“I heard that in the old days, young student writers would line up outside his office waiting for his advice about their poems and stories,” Livewell said.   

During his time at 20^th and Olney, Livewell himself became one of those students. Koch looked over several of his “early and horrible” poems, he said, and told Livewell that he had no ear for poetry. Koch shared vinyl recordings of his favorite poets, including Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, and Richard Wilbur.   

“He told me to let them wash over me and teach my ear to hear verse. After many months, he finally circled two lines from one of my poems and said, ‘they could be the start of a poem.’ He then told me why for about twenty minutes,” Livewell said. “It was the most informative twenty minutes of my life and took me on a path that has never ended.”   

Today, Livewell continues on that path through the publication of his second collection of poems, Pass and Stow (Paul Dry Books).  

His poems, often set in his hometown of Philadelphia, aren’t inspired by anything in the traditional sense, Livewell explained.   

“I think writing has become a habit, a way of seeing and making sense of experience. That experience could be from my own life, my reading, someone else’s experience, etc.,” he said. “I try to have no rules. I jot down phrases and see what they demand of me. Most are dead ends, but some start to have a life of their own and demand my attention.”  

Pass and Stow is the follow-up to Livewell’s first book, Shackamaxon, which won the 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. In addition, Livewell, who is also a long-time medical editor, has been an Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize finalist, received a New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship, and was awarded a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize.   

Livewell even had the opportunity to stand in the footsteps of the professors who made such an impact on him in college, when he was invited back to La Salle to teach poetry by English professor, Kevin Harty, Ph.D. Livewell taught evening classes in Hayman Hall, then known as Olney Hall, in the early 2010s.   

“It was surreal because I was teaching in Olney Hall, where I sat for my classes back in the 1980s and where all of my favorite English professors taught,” Livewell said. “The whole experience on the campus brought back so many great memories. It was great to see Brother Daniel Burke’s Art Museum again as well. He was a great man and a great poet.”   

As he continues to use words to make the world more understandable, Livewell shared one of the most important parts of his creative process.   

“It’s best to pay attention,” he said. “And keep a notebook.”   

–Naomi Thomas