Many consider poetry to be an art of the past, but there are many successful modern poets who continue to influence our world. Dorianne Laux is one such poet. She will host a poetry reading in the Classic City from her collection of published poems, including works from her latest book “Facts about the Moon” and several new poems from her upcoming book “The Book of Men.”

Laux officially began her career as a published poet in 1982 when one of her poems was published in the San Diego Poets Press, but she has been writing poetry since her childhood.

“I have always been a writer,” Laux said. “Ever since the age of 12 I have been writing poems, but I didn’t show them to anyone or talk to anyone about them.”

She estimates that during the span of her life she has written hundreds of thousands of poems, but only 250 have been published. Laux never shared her gift until college, when she began to show her works to her professors.

Laux returned to college on a liberal arts scholarship for older women returning to school. She attended Mills College in Oakland and studied English with a creative writing emphasis.

“I had a young child at that time, but school was important to me,” she said. Around that time, she also started attending poetry readings and submitting her work into local publications.

“After a while of publishing so many poems in different magazines, I had enough published works to make a book,” Laux said. After compiling her first book, she sent it to nationwide contests.

“They all sent me very nice rejection letters,” said Laux. “It wasn’t until I had a poem published in a magazine that also had an interview with Philip Lavine. He read my poem and wrote to me asking for my manuscript.”

Within a week, Laux’s manuscript was sent to the publisher.

Laux draws inspiration from the world around her and people in her life.

“I have always been a poet of personal witness,” she said. “I wanted to make sense of my own personal world by writing about the people I was in community with.”

She said people in her life are her inspiration.

“As time went on, I began to look more outward and see others outside of my state and country as well as look more deeply into myself to find more secrets about myself.”

Laux continues to write poems, her eye aimed towards the world in a larger sense and the deeper feelings rarely expressed by people.