Prof's poem wins award

Rane Arroyo never expected his poem to be so popular.

"No one is more surprised than I am; I didn't expect that," said Arroyo, a professor in the UT English department.

"Always" - the poem Arroyo wrote - is the second-most popular poem at the Poetry Foundation, a nonprofit arts foundation based out of Chicago.

"I'm happy [that I won, but] what's more exciting to me is that it might help other writers write about their own life," he said.

Arroyo's poem "Always" was the second-most viewed poem out of the 6,500 poems on the organization's Web site, said Anne Halsey, spokesperson and media coordinator for the Poetry Foundation.

"The poem [by Arroyo] is categorized as a relationship and love poem," she said. "Love poetry is popular this time of year."

Arroyo said he just found out that his poem was nominated to be part of the Foundation's Web site.

"It's a nice surprise; my publisher nominated it," he said. "A whole bunch of publishers were contacted, and they could nominate a poem if they wanted. It's kind of like 'American Idol' with an audition and a final selection."

Arroyo said his poem is based on a friend that he knew in Utah.

"I had decided to go away from the city and understand the rest of America," he said. "We could have loved each other, but the chance passed, so I wanted to honor him without denying my current happiness."

For example, Arroyo's poem starts: "We met in proud Utah and wore opaque/vodka on those vague Sundays for the/unfaithful on your dangling back porch/while dreaming of the very New York/where we entangled for the last time."

Arroyo takes a theoretical approach to his poetry, he said.

"Poets write for different reasons," he said. "I write about the past and the present, but [I also like to] write a letter to the future."

Arroyo doesn't write form poetry.

"I like capturing the sense of every day, and I also like capturing intellectual conversations," he said.

There is importance in poetry, Arroyo said.

"Poetry is about philosophy and choices," he said. "It's also inclusive; you're talking about many people."

Arroyo loves being a teacher.

"I'm always proud of my students," he said. "I find it interesting that people write poetry whenever there are real emotions involved."

The Poetry Foundation is a "non-profit literary arts foundation that celebrates and discovers the best poetry and places it before the largest possible audience," Halsey said. It is the publisher of Poetry magazine.

"We have a carefully selected and cultivated group of poems," she said. "[The Poetry Foundation] is kind of like an online Norton Anthology."

The poem "Always" is from Arroyo's poetry book, "The Portable Famine." Other poetry collections by Arroyo include "The Roswell Poems" and "Home Movies of Narcissus."