KNOX — After writing poetry for many years, H. Steven Soehnel believes he doesn’t have anything others don’t have, and he doesn’t measure his success or happiness by publications or prizes.
"Writers just have ideas — are people with ideas. I don’t think that I have a talent that other people don’t have. I really believe everybody’s got it," Soehnel said. "That’s why I like poetry...Everybody’s got something to say."

Soehnel, 57, has been writing poetry since he was 11 years old, exploring many topics, ranging from nature and his immediate surroundings to issues that have stirred the nation and world. He’s written about maple syrup and hitting a squirrel with his car. And he’s written about the Loma Prieta Earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1989 and the Los Angeles race riots in 1992.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Soehnel works at Atria Guilderland, a local center for the elderly, and is currently working on a master’s degree in liberal arts.

His love for nature and poetry began when he was a boy. Many of his friends vacationed at the Jersey shore, he said, and he went north, to Vermont, to visit his grandmother’s farm, where he learned to love nature. When he returned to school in Bergenfield, N.J., he said, he would look out the window and daydream about Vermont. His first poem was about birds.
"I just needed something to fill a void, I guess," Soehnel said. "I just started writing stuff, and it’s pretty much continued from there."

In the 1970s, when he was married, he tried to get away from writing poetry.
"I put it all in the closet," said Soehnel. "I said, ‘What am I doing" What’s with this poetry stuff"’...But things would always bring it back to life."
It came back when his sister-in-law and husband visited. Soehnel and his wife brought out a book of poems and showed the couple one about their wedding. His brother-in-law asked, "You wrote this poem about us, Steve""

Soehnel then thought he should start writing again.
"And I just finally said, ‘You know, I guess that’s who I am, like it or not, for better or worse,’ like a marriage."

His inspiration for his poems just comes to him, he said, and he has to work hard to stop himself from writing. Sometimes, Soehnel said, he thinks his inspiration comes from a higher power. After writing some of his poems, he asks himself where they came from.
"I didn’t even think intellectually. It wasn’t premeditated. It would just come out complete and it would make sense and I would say, ‘Wow, where’d that come from"’" he said. "I didn’t really give myself credit. I thought something else, God or some higher power, is just inspiring me."

"Maple Syrup"
In the 1970s, Soehnel wrote "Maple Syrup," a poem about the authenticity of nature. It was published in 1981 in Mountain Times, an independent weekly newspaper in Vermont. Senator Gilbert Godnick of Rutland then tried to have the poem adopted as the state’s poem.

In 1996, Soehnel sent his poem to Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, which launched a contest for an official Albany County poem.
"I kind of like the idea of laying low and having a low-key little career," Soehnel said. "I kind of like being a part of it," he said of the contests. "I don’t have to be the prize winner."

He also likes to regale listeners with tales of his encounters with the famous — including Allen Ginsberg and Jean-Claude Van Damme. While living in California, Soehnel drove a taxi cab and worked as an extra. He can be seen in a prison scene in Death Warrant, a 1990 film starring Van Damme.

Honoring a soldier killed in war

In 2003, George Wood, fighting in Iraq, died after stepping on a roadside bomb. Wood is the brother-in-law of Soehnel’s daughter. A Cornell graduate, Wood had joined the Army in the mid-1990s and wanted to teach at West Point. Soehnel was sitting in his Ketcham Road home in Knox when he heard the news, and his immediate reaction, he said, was to write a poem about it. He wanted to heal his daughter’s pain and the pain of those in Wood’s family.
"You don’t know how to handle grief," said Soehnel. "There’s no answers."

At Wood’s funeral in Utica, the whole town attended, and, afterward, Soehnel handed Wood’s mother the poem.
Four years later, after watching news coverage of the ensuing war on the television, Soehnel revisited his poem because, he said, he felt he needed to explain it. He recalled Wood’s brother, a large man, sitting alone at the funeral and the war’s similarities to the Vietnam War. He renamed the poem "The Gift" and wrote about the circumstances surrounding the poem, the war, and Wood’s death.

Soehnel’s letter and poem were published as a letter to the Enterprise editor for Veteran’s Day on Nov. 15, 2007. He sent the paper to Wood’s mother. She replied with a letter thanking him.
"That letter probably made me happier than any publication," said Soehnel. "What better thing than to heal somebody’s sorrow" And I’d rather have that than an Oscar. I think it was Bob Dylan was saying, ‘All I do is write songs and these doctors save lives.’ And I was thinking, ‘Yeah, That’s true. What the heck do we do"’ But I felt I did something that was worthwhile with that poem," Soehnel said. "I felt, here’s somebody who feels like their son is remembered."