Some Kansas Lawyer-Poets

At first glance the idea of a Kansas lawyer-poet might seem odd. We tend to think oflawyers as hard-boiled men and women of the world, not as sensitive poetic types. Similarly, when we think of Kansas we think first of farmers and ranchers, not of lawyers. The idea of Kansas lawyer-poets, therefore, may well seem to be strange and the breed quite limited, but nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout American history, lawyers have distinguished themselves as poets and literary figures. 1 So far as Kansas is a breeding ground for poets, we may tum to a statement by the current Poet Laureate of Kansas, Denise Low: "[A]rea writers look beyond the outskirts of town, outward to the explosive tangerine sunsets, the fringed prairie orchids, and the shelves of flint rock that underlie the jagged horizons. The grassland vistas are the[ir] revered cathedrals."z Thus, it should come as no surprise that Kansas has a rich tradition of lawyer-poets.