by Dave Allen ’06

What goes into making a poet? For Jeanne Minahan McGinn ’83, a forced appreciation of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” marks the beginning. She recalls her older brothers brandishing the song’s lyrics at her, saying, “Admit it! This is poetry!” At Bucknell, other poetic forms enthralled her, with a recitation of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover” propelling her headlong into literature, and poetry strengthened its hold during graduate studies in Ireland and at Bryn Mawr College, the latter a detour from a journalism career. Lately, the professor and chair of liberal arts at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music has been a poet more heard than read, as numerous composers, including 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon, have set her words to music; one of Higdon’s settings, a concerto for violin, orchestra and choir, has been performed worldwide. Their latest collaboration employs short poems styled as telegrams, and one titled “Telegram to my Career” conveys McGinn’s wonder at her unlikely path: “Not what I meant or thought.”