Poet sees world in vivid words

Sue Ranglack looks for the extraordinary in the ordinary, like when a swarm of monarch butterflies invaded her back yard years ago.

"It happened so fast," said Ranglack, a lifelong Murray resident. "The neighborhood was filled with butterflies, and then they were gone. For me, it was a metaphor of my life."

The butterflies looked like fluttering orange books to her. The experience later inspired the title of Ranglack's award-winning poetry book, "Shouting from the Book of Orange."

The Utah State Poetry Society named Ranglack, 50, Poet of the Year on April 22 at the 2006 festival. Ranglack said she resubmitted her manuscript eight years in a row before it won the contest. "I never thought it would win," she said. "I thought I would be a bridesmaid the rest of my life."

Craig Arnold, who judged the book submission, said the decision was a tough one among the final four entries. He picked Ranglack because her imagery is vivid and deft. "She shows us a way of paying close and loving attention to the world," Arnold wrote in his decision. "A way, perhaps, of finding a right place in it."

Ned Snell, USPS president and third-place finisher in the book competition, said Ranglack's ability to identify powerful imagery is one of her key strengths.

"She's got a way with metaphor that is pretty unique," he said. "Her choice of words is disarming, and the appeal comes in images that jump out and grab you."

Unlike other poets, Ranglack seldom rewrites her poems. She works a poem out in her head before she writes, but she feels rewriting a poem would be beating a dead horse.

"My poems are very spontaneous," she said. "If it doesn't work for me the first time, I either chuck it or cannibalize it."

The Poet of the Year title isn't Ranglack's only award in the world of poetry. Last year, she won a national college student competition sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. In addition, she won the sweepstakes category at the USPS festival every year since 2001.

"Poetry has been really good to me," she said. "I don't know why."

A defining moment, or catalyst, ignites every person's passion. Ranglack said her poetry career began when her mother passed away in 1993. She wrote a poem about the experience, and her family encouraged her to pursue poetry seriously. "It was really a terrible poem, looking back on it," she said.