Shared Language of Poetry

Lynne Francis AC '10, Poet

Major: American studies

Floyd Cheung’s influential courses: Methods in Literary Studies, Reading Contemporary Poetry

My first class at Smith: “My career was as a nonprofit fundraiser. Floyd Cheung had reinvented the Methods in Literary Studies course in his own wonderful way—it included poetry, for example, and poets’ ideas on how their work should be read. That class set the whole tone at Smith for me. I remember so clearly being addressed in that first class as his colleague—that’s how he referred to all of his students. I was coming back to school after about 40 years. That was huge for me.”

Why I pursued his mentoring: “I think as an Ada, you’re more outspoken, you’re not afraid to go to the professor. You know he’s a human being. I started talking with him about my love of poetry and took anything he taught because he’s such a generous scholar, such an encourager.”

We hold each other accountable: “After graduation, I stayed in Northampton, hoping to find a job. He suggested that we check in on each other every other day. He was writing a great deal then, and I was, too. We would check on each other’s progress: ‘I read six poems.’ ‘I wrote two terrible lines.’ That kept me honest. Now, we still check in to talk about poetry or catch up. Last June he found a 30-day poetry challenge, and we both did it.”

Becoming family friends: “Sometimes we would share poetry while he was waiting for his children to get out of ballet class. My daughters went to Smith, too: Lesley Johnson ’02, and then Caitlin Johnson and I graduated together in 2010. Caitlin was in dance, and Cheung was the second reader for her M.F.A. thesis. That man can do anything.”

MENTOR: FLOYD CHEUNG

Associate Professor of English Language and Literature

Two years after Lynne Francis graduated from Smith, she and Floyd Cheung submitted poems to a competition in Amherst. When Francis’ poem “Pomegranate Tart” was chosen as a finalist, Cheung recited it from memory to the audience, which included his family. The audience voted by applause for her poem to be the winner. “It was nervewracking and thrilling,” Cheung says. “More importantly, it was an honor.” As her professor, Cheung recalls being impressed with Francis’ wholehearted devotion in class and her skills as a practicing poet. “Lynne has been writing poetry for a long time, so I am actually her junior colleague in that arena,” Cheung says. “She has helped me to pay greater attention to sound in my poems. She’s also very encouraging about my work in general. She once said that my poems make her ‘feel smart.’ I like that.”

This story appears in the Winter 2016-17 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photography by Christopher T. Martin