The Orangery was packed from window to window as the crowd waited to hear the poetry of Ethel Rackin and James Richardson.  Over 100 people filled the Newtown campus room for one of the most attended events in this year’s Wordsmith’s series.

Ethel Rackin, an Assistant Professor of Language and Literature at Bucks, was the first poet to present her work in front of the audience during the event on Friday, Feb. 17. She earned a Masters in Fine Arts from Bard College and her PhD in English Literature from Princeton University.  She began writing in 7th grade and started writing poetry consistently at that time.  She found the inspiration to start writing when her best friend ran away from home as a child.

“I write when I try to make sense of things,” she said. “It’s a way to work through difficulties in life.”

Her book of poetry consists of notes, pictures and songs.  Rackin started out reading poems that had a theme of nature running throughout them, a major inspiration for her.

“It’s surprising because I grew up in the city,” she said.

As Rackin was reading, people kept filing into the Orangery.  Only several empty seats remained in the front of the Orangery by the beginning of the event.

Rackin writes about places that she’s never been and things she has never seen in her life.

“Writing is a great way to transport yourself to those places,” Rackin said to the audience.

Audience members identified with her messages and found her poetry effecting at that message.

“She makes me want to write about places that I have never been to” said Cristina Feniak, 34, of Chalfont.

Eric Hueber, 26, of Chalfont, said he thought her poems were short and flowed together well.

James Richardson, the author of six poetry books and two works of literary criticism, was the second poet to present at the event. He is currently a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University.

The nationally recognized poet has won numerous awards including a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and and was a finalist in the 2010 National Book Awards for his work titled “By The Numbers: Poems and Aphorisms”.

Richardson read poems from, “By the Numbers”, that had the audience laughing in their seats. He recited his poetry in a humorous way that left his audience smiling.

The audience hung on to his every word taking in the messages he was relaying through his words.

“He was witty, funny and held the audience’s attention” said Feniak.  “His work is a combination of different genres.”

The turnout was so great that Richardson’s books sold out at the event.