Here is a poet with spirit large enough, and a history deep enough to do justice to the rich and sprawling continent of Africa. His is no heart of darkness, it is rather, a heart filled with light and love for the creatures, and the people, and the beauty of this land. ELEPHANT CAKE WALK is a jewel, with exquisite photographs from the Amboseli Game Reserve by Cynthia Moss and others to highlight and polish every facet of Oerke's checkerboard vision. As William H. Banks, Jr. tells us from Harlem, " Andrew Oerke's superb collection of poetry stands tall and strides majestically through to the very heart of Africa, while guiding the reader on an unforgettable literary journey."
Never before in the many books and published poems has Andrew's environmental ethic, his insight, his intense attachment to nature, his comprehension of the ancient aspects of the earth and her living animals and plants been explicit. His multiple other poetry books and single poems seen at Andrewoerkepoetry.org hint at his strong attachment to a healthy earth. Elephant Cake Walk was oneof the final manuscripts Andrew pored over, and worked on during his last weeks, with grandfatherly desire that his grandchildrenCashen and Odin would love the animals he wrote about.
Andrew Oerke traveled the globe as a pioneer in the Peace Corps, a founder of microloan nonprofits, a restorer of endangered ocean waters, and as a poet. The son and grandson of Lutheran ministers who established churches across Minnesota and Wisconsin, Oerke eschewed the family business but maintained a pastoral sense of empathy, particularly through his writing. Oerke, whose poetry appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, died recently of a heart ailment exacerbated by a long struggle with the effects of malaria contracted years earlier in Africa. He was 80. U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner William Meredith once wrote of him: "Andrew Oerke's work is a window on the world, a world seen through the compassionate eyes of a fellow pilgrim." In 2005, Oerke was given the United Nations Award for Literature by the U.N. Society for Writers and Artists for his books "African Stiltdancer" and "San Miguel de Allende." Born in La Crosse, Wis., Oerke graduated from high school in Emmons, Minn., began his college studies at St. Olaf in Northfield in 1948, and won a Fulbright scholarship to Freie Universitat of Berlin, and scholarships to University of Salamanca, Spain, the University of Mexico and Baylor University in Texas. Oerke taught English literature at Bemidji State University after working on his Ph.D. at Iowa State University.
