Joyce Sutphen: Poetry, People, and Sense of Place

What affection I have for the earth, for the meadow already gone to golden, for the burnt-orange reeds of the cattails, for the maple leaves’ yellow pattern against a pale-blue sky, for the black trunk, for the black branches, for the small black twigs.

Joyce Sutphen
Professor of English and Poet Laureate of Minnesota

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Excerpted from Rooted in a Distinctive Tradition, Open to the World: Reflections Across Campus on the Heritage, Character, and Vision of Gustavus Adolphus College
Edited by Marcia J. Bunge, Rev. Drell and Adeline Bernhardson Distinguished Chair of Lutheran Studies

“The aim of this book is to address some of the common questions visitors or newcomers ask about the college’s identity and heritage: What makes Gustavus such a special and distinctive liberal arts college? What is the value of studying or working at a college founded by Swedish Lutherans? What does its Lutheran affiliation mean? How does its Lutheran heritage influence Gustavus today and into the future?”