Poet, ex-nun returns to UM

It sounds like the start of a bad joke: A professor, a nun and a poet walk into a bar …

Except that the only person walking into the bar is 89-year-old Madeline DeFrees, and the joke doesn’t quite work because she is all three.

DeFrees is a former University of Montana creative writing professor, a former nun and a published poet and author. She will return to campus this afternoon to read her poetry as part of the creative writing program’s Spring Lecture Series. The reading, as well as a high tea, will take place in the Davidson Honors College lounge from 4 to 6 p.m.

“We wanted to talk about the history of the program,” said creative writing department chair Prageeta Sharma. “And Madeline is very much an authority on that subject.”

Most notably, DeFrees was the first female professor in UM’s creative writing department when she started here in 1967. She also taught alongside a regional literary giant, poet Richard Hugo.

As a young girl in Oregon, DeFrees began writing poetry at the age of eleven. When asked what kind of poems she writes, DeFrees said, “That’s like asking someone what kind of words they use. There’s no way to describe it.”

DeFrees also addressed the source her inspiration in creative writing.

“What triggers a poem for me is a phrase or an experience of something new,” she said.

After graduating school, DeFrees joined the sisterhood and was assigned to teach grade school.

“I was a disaster as a teacher,” she said. “But gradually I got the kids to sit down and pay attention.”

DeFrees recalled meeting Hugo at poetry readings and conferences when she later taught at Holy Names College in Spokane, Wash. The two became good friends.

“The way I understand it was that Richard would spring Madeline from the convent in Spokane and take her out to have a good time,” said Seattle poet and friend Frances McCue.

In 1967, DeFrees was asked by a UM administrator to teach in Hugo’s place while he was on leave in Italy.

“Well, I could never replace him, but I told them I’d do my best,” DeFrees said.

Still a practicing nun, she had to ask for a leave of absence each year to continue teaching in Montana. Her time outside the convent introduced her to the thrills of making her own money, drinking sherry and learning to drive a car.

“It’s pretty hard to go back (to the convent) when you’ve learned to be so independent,” she said. “I used to have to ask permission to leave the room.”

After seven years, she decided to relieve herself of her vows to the church and continue her Montana teaching career. DeFrees said her sisterhood was a promise she was keeping to her mother, and after 38 years and her mother’s death, it was no longer an obligation.

She fondly remembers her time with the church, and kept up with her writing throughout her time there, as one colleague remembers.

“Madeline told me that her duty at the convent was scrubbing floors, so she would just compose poems while she was scrubbing,” said Lois Welch, a former chair of the UM Department of English who taught alongside DeFrees.

The hard work continued during DeFrees’ time in Montana as she taught poetry, creative writing and literature.

“The main thing I learned while teaching here was that there’s a difference between being stupid and just not having a lot of cultural education,” she said.

DeFrees recalled a student coming up to her and saying, “Wow, that Shakespeare guy can really write!” She realized his words were of admiration, not of ignorance.

“In Montana, people say what they think, regardless. It’s much more exciting to teach people like that.”

DeFrees left UM in 1979 to teach at the University of Massachusetts. She remained there until 1985, when she retired to Seattle.

DeFrees said the words of wisdom Hugo passed along to her in their friendship stay with her after Hugo’s death in 1982.

“The best advice Dick ever gave me was ‘If you want to understand a poem that you had just read, you should write it out on a piece of paper, just to let the words go through you.’”

She said she admires Hugo’s work, and counts him in the “front ranks” of the great poets of the Northwest. His famous poem “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” was mentioned by DeFrees as her favorite Hugo poem. She also cites several of her own poems as favorites, “To Marilyn Monroe, Whose Favorite Color Was White,” “Still Life” and “The Register,” which are likely to be heard at the reading this afternoon.

DeFrees, author of eight books of poetry, still tries to write every day and looks for inspiration everywhere as she prepares to enter her ninetieth year.

McCue said she admires DeFrees’ versatility.

“It’s amazing to see an elder of the field still doing such great work. She is an amazing woman and poet.”