3/21/15

World Poetry Day

So today is World Poetry Day.  This is my first blog entry -- I mean ever -- so let me tell you just a bit about me.  I have an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University ("Go Shocks!").  My poems started finding homes in the 1970s; more than 200 have appeared either in print or online.  I taught writing at the university level for 11 years and have worked as a writer and editor in the corporate world for 20 years.  But enough about me (for now).

Which particular poets are you celebrating today?  I'm remembering Mark Strand, who died earlier this year and was a tremendous influence on me, as I'm sure he was for so many others.  "Keeping Things Whole" is as fine a poem as I've ever read, and I never tire of reading it and kicking myself for not writing it first.  I only met him once, when he read and conducted a brief Q&A at a writers' conference.  He was friendly but just a bit distant.  He had a sweater tied around his neck and wore shoes without socks.

What other modern poets have I admired and/or been influenced by?  I'll list them here with a representative poem and a comment about each:

Randall Jarrell, "The Lost World":  In grad school, his volume of collected poems was the one book I annotated to death.  "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is his most anthologized poem and deservedly so, but "The Lost World" evokes Jarrell's childhood in a way that's both witty and deeply moving.

Gregory Corso, "Marriage":  Corso is my favorite Beat, and this is one of my two favorite Corso poems (the other being "Greenwich Village Suicide").  It's probably the funniest poem I've ever read.  ("Penguin dust!")

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "the pennycandystore beyond the el":  This poem, with Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," is my desert island poem.  Like "The Lost World," this one evokes a moment in childhood.  But the bittersweet realization of impending adulthood in the final lines makes it unforgettable. (Listen to Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain," which to me is the thematic lyrical equivalent.)

Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus":  Of all the "confessional" poets' lives, Plath's seems to be hardest for fans to separate from the art itself.  Ariel is a landmark work, her final achievement, and "Lady Lazarus" will blow you out of the water.

W.D. Snodgrass, "Heart's Needle":  I love this poem.  I tried describing it three times now and deleted each draft; you just have to read it for yourself.  I'll just say that the main theme is a divorced father's relationship with his little girl.  Snodgrass is often called "confessional," but I never think of him that way.  "Heart's Needle" is a great melding of formalism and intimacy.  The last verse is utterly touching.

Theodore Roethke, "The Bat":  Try reading this one right before bed and see what happens.

Mary Oliver, "Rage":  Uncharacteristically for Oliver, this is an indoor poem, detached from the natural world.  I also think it's her most devastating.

Stephen Dunn, "The Guardian Angel": Dunn's earliest work was often very funny, but with the years and increased acclaim has come a certain soberness.  So "The Guardian Angel" is no chucklefest, but it is highly original and as beautiful as anything he's done.

Jim Carroll, "Birthday Poem": Living at the Movies is the only collection of his I've read, and I don't know a whole lot about him.  But a few of the poems here really drew me back for multiple readings just out of admiration, and this is one.

Robert Frost, "Home Burial":  People don't often think of this side of Frost -- "The Road Not Taken" doesn't unsettle the mind like this does -- but I think "Home Burial" is Frost at the peak of his powers.

William Matthews, "A Poetry Reading at West Point":  A gifted writer we lost too soon.  His poems are infused with beauty and wit, and this is a good example of both.

Louis Simpson, "The Glass Eel Gatherer":  Sometimes Simpson's work can seem artless, almost conversational.  Well, this isn't one of those, but it is a beauty.

Marilyn Hacker, "Somewhere in a Turret":  I consider Hacker the best formalist poet working today.  I first read "Somewhere in a Turret" in the 1970s, and I still pull it out from time to time just to bask.  By the way, I saw her give a reading at Chumley's in Greenwich Village many years ago.  She was just about to stand up and begin when another poet (I won't name her) whispered to her that her fly was down.  I was seated right behind them, and it was such a lovely, perfectly natural moment; I remember it more clearly than I do the poems she read that afternoon.

William Packard, "Ty Cobb Poem":  Packard was a gifted poet and teacher and also the editor of the New York Quarterly for many years.  (I'm pretty sure he was the founder, but don't quote me because I can't remember.)  I attended his poetry class at The New School (then The New School for Social Research) before joining his editorial staff.  I remember us accepting one of Charles Bukowski's cover letters because it was even more entertaining than the poems it accompanied.  Anyway, Packard, by example, taught me to open a poem up and really let it breathe, take its time, sneak up on its powerful conclusion.  "Ty Cobb  Poem" taught me that -- I can't think of another poem like it.

Elizabeth Bishop, "Filling Station":  The diamond cutter of poets.  Not as famous as "The Fish," but "Filling Station" does what I always admire -- finding beauty in the commonplace.

Allen Ginsberg, "Kaddish":  I like this poem even more than "Howl."  Ginsberg's elegy to his late mother is, for my money, the most intimate and moving of all his work.

Richard Hugo, "In Your Good Dream":  One of my regrets in life is never having taken a writing class with Hugo in Missoula.  Read him once and it'll be hard to resist the temptation to imitate his style.  This poem is from his unique collection 31 Letters and 13 Dreams, poems that fall into one of those two categories.  I chose the final poem because it just makes me miss him even though we never did meet.

It's hard for me to single out individual poems by poets it's been my honor to know over the years.  It's also hard to single out the poets themselves.  But read anything you can get your hands on by these three, all of whom are gifted and writing today, and you won't go wrong:

Albert Goldbarth
Jeanine Hathaway
Denise Low

I could venture back in time and start listing other favorites (especially the Romantics), but I left a Popsicle on the kitchen counter and it might be melted by now.  I hope you'll go find your own favorite poem and celebrate World Poetry Day with me.

Vince