The Ladder: Infrequent Intelligence from the NCSDO Staff
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When former poet laureate Billy Collins first encountered Warner Brothers cartoons as a child, it was as if he had discovered "a world of such plasticity that anything imaginable was possible" (WSJ, 6/28/08). In my first encounter with Typo, when I interviewed at NCSDO, a similar realization hit me: this was not the usual workplace. Not only did this company have a mascot, but it happened to be a dog with attitude—and a cartoon dog at that. NCSDO was a place that knew how humor could animate college admission publications, a place that could imagine a different look for every client (like the menagerie of Genesis, each according to its kind), a place that could help prospective students—and donors—imagine futures of promise.
A little over a decade after joining the company, having written the admission communications program for many clients, including Sarah Lawrence, one of NCSDO's most writing-intensive colleges, I was fortunate enough to attend its summer writing seminar—and participate in a poetry workshop led by none other than Billy Collins. Here was the ultimate (to my writing-centric sensibility) educational experience: small-group and one-on-one instruction from a modern master of the written word. Suddenly, futures of promise weren't limited to those students for whom my words had shown the way; I could contribute to society outside of academe, manage to support a family, and (as I was wont to say in admission brochures) pursue my passion at its highest levels.
In one of Billy Collins's funniest, most incisive poems, "The Revenant," a dog returns from the dead to tell his owner how much he despised him in life, adding that the dogs in "this place" write poetry. I can only hope that Typo continues to see poetry, and its ability to unleash the imagination, as consistent with the mission of NCSDO—a place where, certainly, anything imaginable is possible.
Click on the bone to listen to Billy Collins reading on A Prairie Home Companion.
Posted by Matthew Westbrook on Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:26:42 -0400 | Permalink