World Famous in NZ... & Cookeville, Tennessee

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Local writer has poetry featured in New Zealand

Author: Megan Trotter Herald-Citizen Staff Date: June 25, 2009

COOKEVILLE -- Jeffery McCaleb has never been to New Zealand, but he currently has one of his poems displayed there on a poster as a part of an exhibition by national poster company Phantom Billstickers. It all started while he was taking a class at Nashville State Community College in Cookeville.

"At the end of the semester the instructor e-mailed me and said 'I really like your writing. I hope you continue to write. It's wonderful. I would like to share some of your writings with the department chair here and I also have a friend in New Zealand who's a writer. I'd like to send him some of your stuff,'" McCaleb said.

That led to his meeting with Jim Wilson, head of Phantom Billstickers in New Zealand, who was an avid reader and writer himself. Wilson wanted to bring the beauty of poetry back to the people and set about collecting poetry not only from McCaleb, but also from Michael White of Nashville and poets from around New Zealand. Wilson decided to print posters of each poet's work and display it in New Zealand and Nashville.

The first four poems, including McCaleb's, were put up on June 2. Over the next six months, four poets will be exhibited monthly. McCaleb admits he was intimidated at first when he saw the biographies of some of the poets that would be featured on the posters with him.

Many were previously published writers with short stories, poems and even books already in print.

"I was like, 'How did I get with these group of people?'" McCaleb said. "But someone told me, at one point in time, everyone who's published just had the same type of blank biography: 'I like to write.'"

McCaleb started writing when he was about 13 years old. He said that two of his favorite books include "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

One of his favorite modern writers is Frederick Beakner.

"He's a master. He has a way with words in regards to spirituality or God or just human dilemma that it's worthy of reading aloud. "Every time I read a Beakner book, I almost have to read it aloud because it really is so beautiful."

McCaleb is currently studying psychology at Nashville State Community College and plans to have his associate's degree by December.

Then he plans to pursue a bachelor's and master's degree, and possibly a second bachelor's and master's after that.

He calls himself "a professional student" and believes that learning about a wide variety of topics is important to the creative process. "I think it's crucial in order to have any sort of output, whether it's with words or music or with any form of art, you have to have input," he said.

McCaleb is thrilled with the opportunity to have his poetry recognized overseas and in Nashville, but has made sure to have a plan to keep the sudden fame from going to his head -- he has a bright pair of green shoes.

"Every day I have an opportunity, or whatever you might want to call it, to take myself entirely too seriously. If I can catch it soon enough, that moment, then I'll put on my green shoes.

"Because I certainly can't take myself too seriously then; I'm wearing green shoes.

" If the occasion doesn't call for green shoes, then I've got some weird-looking socks."

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