Menomonie poet Robert Schuler’s work often reflects on related art forms, from silent French films to specific blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf.

    Robert Schuler revels in moments that range from blue-black to rose-lavender – that smell like jasmine, lavender, and rosemary. A poet who hails from Menomonie, he clearly values preciseness over mere brevity and the sensory over the abstract.

His fifteenth and latest collection of poems, The Book of Jeweled Visions, is loosely modeled after what is known as a Book of Hours, or a celebratory and art-filled devotional text for medieval Christians. Schuler approaches his Book of Hours in a more literal sense: it is a record of discrete moments and instants. “My writing is what I see; it’s the world,” says Schuler, a professor at UW-Stout since 1978 who teaches English and Philosophy.

Consisting of 104 pages and twice as many poems, Schuler’s work often reflects on related art forms, from silent French films to specific blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf. But rather than emulating a riff or replicating the essence of a painting, Schuler uses them as springboards. “I want my writing to be a fresh impression that’s immediate and alive in the moment,” he says.

Some pages contain up to four poems apiece – each containing a flash of perception, functioning without any superfluous framework. “I want you to believe you’re looking at it,” says Schuler of his subject matter, from “green-tinged” clouds to an egret characterized as a “slim white buddha.” Consistently presenting pure, distilled images, Schuler manages to shrink the gap between writer and reader to what feels like a mere synapse.

His titles, while sometimes barebones, just as often introduce settings that will resonate with many Wisconsinites. One poem is entitled, farm near Black River, early March and another backwaters, winter light, Alma, Wisconsin. We have the peculiar advantage of entering the poem with an impression of similar seasonal environments. That impression, however, is fleeting, as it sharpens and expands upon reading.

For Schuler, the act of writing fulfills two main goals: to inspire readers to “look out the window again,” and to keep himself awake in a culture of many distractions as he tries to “figure it all out.” Poetry is a fitting means to this end, and a natural extension of his other field of study: philosophy. “Writing is re-thinking,” he says. “I wanted to be a novelist, but it kept bursting out into a bunch of poems.”

    After 30 years and 15 books, Schuler’s well of topics is still deep. He’s grateful for William Carlos Williams’ exposure of “the ordinary,” made famous by that red wheelbarrow. Schuler’s rain-soaked skis are the topic of one such poem.

“We don’t adore or admire or love things enough,” says Schuler. “I have the same painting on my wall as 25 years ago, and my friends will say, ‘don’t you get sick of it?’ It’s inexhaustible. I can revisit everything good.” For Schuler, the more people noticing and admiring the world, the better.

Though he’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times and his work has appeared in such journals as Free Verse, he does not depend on recognition to define his success. He’s also wary of anything that tries to shape his craft too forcefully.

“Lit mags sometimes are a little silly and competitive,” he says. “Some … try to cultivate you to make you more like them … and we grind ourselves to a mold.”

From The Book of Jeweled Visions, you can expect an experimental, fiercely passionate collection that is not afraid to approximate or question – poems that earn their wisdom; words that are jewel-like in their refraction of the ordinary.

    Schuler will read from his latest and older works at the Menomonie Public Library on Monday, June 21 at 7pm. His book is available through Tom Montag, publisher of MWPH books in Fairwater, WI and costs $12.50, plus $1.50 postage.