Two poems written by Dr. Scott Foran, Assistant Professor of English at Montreat College, have been recently published in literary journals, bringing his total of published poems to more than 40.
Published in Arboreal Literary Magazine, a publication established in 2022 and committed to artistic growth, “kafka in the snow” is Foran’s most recent poem. In the poem, Foran reflects on the life of one of his favorite authors, Franz Kafka, who died at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.
“I was trying to make a connection with nature, Kafka, and my preference for reading his work in the wintertime,” Foran said. “There’s an image of the tubers of flowers being planted in the fall, being sort of like the words he’s speaking, and then they come out in the spring in scarlet-colored blooms, which is reminiscent of the blood from tuberculosis.”
In “walk in the rain,” featured in the Winter 2023 edition of Euphony Journal, Foran shares a personal experience about his son when he was two years old. On an afternoon walk, Foran remembers his son “waiting for puddles to appear magically” and “taking delight in the thin slap of your shoes parting the water.”
“Poetry is almost like a snapshot or a photo of a precise moment in time or nature or thought,” said Foran, who writes every first draft of a poem by hand. “It’s a condensed form of human expression that, if it’s done well, has a symbolic meaning that you can’t express as well over many pages. Brevity, I think, is important in poetry and so is building in layers of meaning that can be unraveled by the reader. It shouldn’t be obvious on the front end, but the reader should be able to come back to it over and over again.”
Following stints at Southside Virginia Community College, William Jessup University, National University, Shasta College, and Simpson University in Redding, California, Foran joined the Montreat College faculty in 2022. This semester, he is teaching general English composition courses at Montreat College, as well as classes focused on American literature, creative nonfiction writing, and business communication.
In addition to 41 poems, Foran has also published eight short stories, three creative nonfiction essays, and 23 articles on writing and literature. One of his plays, Fool Me Twice, has been performed by the Shasta College Theatre.