Poet Sayuri Matsuura Ayers creates in community

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There exists in some corners of the poetry world a belief that the practice is deeply isolating and insular, requiring long hours spent curled alone around a notebook. And the Columbus poet Sayuri Matsuura Ayers said there was a point in time early in her writing career when she believed this to be the case.

“When I was in my 20s, I was definitely thinking about [poets like] Emily Dickinson and this sense of solitude that can be very easy to romanticize,” said Ayers, who will take part in “Rhapsody & Refrain,” a two-week, 30-poet blitz that kicks off at the East Side art space Streetlight Guild on Wednesday, April 16. (Ayers is scheduled to read alongside Matter News columnist Mandy Shunnarah on Friday, April 25.)

This idea eroded quickly once Ayers moved back to Columbus in 2003 or ’04 and became deeply ingrained in the local scene, participating in the monthly Poetry Salon workshop and making routine appearances at the late, beloved Writers’ Block Poetry Night. “And in that,” Ayers said, “there were all of these really important and really generous community members who taught me that art is not an individual pursuit, but actually a communal expression.”

Looking back, Ayers now describes the moment that this realization took hold as “a spiritual shift” that continues to impact her writing in myriad ways both obvious and imperceptible. But the biggest change, Ayers said, is how she views her role within the process, allowing that as a young poet she stepped to the page with a belief that she had something to say. “And it’s become more that there are things I need to listen to and things I need to take in, and then I allow those things to be channeled in my writing,” the poet continued. “I think it’s the idea of humility and being able to put aside the speaking to center the listening aspect of art.”

Another turning point arrived in the form the artist’s residency Ayers received from Streetlight Guild in 2022 and which granted her office space at 700 Bryden, an arts community on the city’s Near East Side. Not only did it allow the poet to connect with a larger, more diverse community of crafters and artists, but the investment made in her by Streetlight led Ayers to reconsider the intention with which she approached her own craft. “I took the opportunity to invest in my own work and take it more seriously,” said Ayers, who released multiple collections via Porkbelly Press in the years immediately following the residency, including The Maiden in the Moon and The Woman, The River, both from 2023.

A working mother, the residency also benefited Ayers by granting her a space dedicated solely to her writing pursuits. “When I was working at home there was always a part of my brain that was wandering to the dishes. What was that noise? Why is it so quiet?” the poet said, and laughed. “So, it helped to be able to separate my creative self from my practical self. … And that office space became a place of haven, or a way to disconnect from those everyday distractions. And when I would close the door, I would actually take off my shoes in my office space as a sign that I was leaving that outside world behind, and now I’m stepping into a place where I can create.”

In addition to the two already released collections, Ayers also embraced the residency as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a third, in-progress book of poems, dubbed Radish Women and rooted in the World War II years her grandmother worked as a physical laborer on a farm in Wakayama, Japan. “And I think the poems are all of the earth,” said Ayers, who early in the writing process volunteered at the woman-owned organic farm Roots and Shoots as a means of connecting more literally with the soil. “I worked in the fields with the farmers, and I interviewed some of them, asking them questions about labor and the ways it affects their bodies. … It’s about the physicality of labor, and how that suffering can be translated into something you can see, like a radish.”

The writing has been further influenced by this political and social moment, speaking more broadly to “the invisible labor that upholds society,” Ayers said.

“In the climate we’re in now, I think it’s about visibility, and it’s about voice, and it’s about how important the voice of witness is to resistance,” the poet continued. “During this time, we’re experiencing this really repressive and aggressive breakdown of society, and we’re experiencing this together. And each poem, even though it comes from me, is actually poly-vocal, because it’s also including the experiences of other people. … I think of the creative process very much like breathing, actually, because each time I inhale I’m taking in other writers, other artists, other community members. I’m hearing their voices and absorbing what I understand from their experiences. And all of that comes out as the exhale, which is the work.”

The full schedule of 2025 “Rhapsody & Refrain” performers

(All showtimes are 8 p.m. at Streetlight Guild except where noted)

Wednesday, April 16: Sidney Jones Jr. and Bill Kerwin

Thursday, April 17: Ajanae Dawkins and Cynthia Amoah

Friday, April 18: Ruth Awad and Nikki Allen

Saturday, April 19: Hemalatha Venkataraman and Tomas Pacheco

Sunday, April 20: Steve Abbott and Chuck Salmons (5:00 p.m.)

Monday, April 21: Louise Robertson and Paula J. Lambert

Tuesday, April 22: Darren C. Demaree and Christina Szuch

Wednesday, April 23: Nathan McDowell and Scott Woods

Thursday, April 24: Marcus Jackson and Schyler Butler

Friday, April 25: Mandy Shunnarah and Sayuri Matsuura Ayers