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Adios, Jack Gilbert—UPDATED
Jack Gilbertphoto by Robert Tobey I just heard from a couple of friends that Jack Gilbert passed away today, then I found press confirmation of it here. Just yesterday the LA Times published a wonderful article on this fine poet, and more will certainly follow. It really doesn’t matter where one places Jack Gilbert on the scale of American poets; time will work that out.Read More
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Adios, Louis Simpson
It was saddening to read this morning of Louis Simpson’s death. His sensibility was Cheever-esque, arising from the vexed heart of suburban America, that spiritually islanded life so similar to the one he’d lived as a youth in Jamaica. Louis Simpson My favorite anecdote about Simpson, the truth of which I can’t swear to, comes from his early years of teaching at Berkley. He’d earned a Ph.D at Columbia and was quietly ensconced in the English Department, where he was glad to lead a semi-reclusive existence.Read More
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Adios, Daryl Hine
It’s sad to lose Daryl Hine, even though I never became a fan of his poetry, because his translations are wonderful. I especially appreciate his versions of The Homeric Hymns. The originals come a period between 600 BCE to 400 CE—a thousand years during which Homer’s epic diction was turned to more personal uses.Read More
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Adios, Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich,Early and Late How many thousands pass on every day? How many poets? I don’t have the math skills to figure that one out. All I can say is that many more move “on to the next” without comment from me because, simply put, I don’t know them or their work. Mourning would feel disingenuous. The loss of Adrienne Rich is different. Although I never had the opportunity to meet her, her passing feels personal.Read More
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Friday Notebook 02.03.12
No new poems this week, which got away from me in every sense.Read More
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Adios, Wisława Szymborska
“Poland’s 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska, whose simple words and playful verse plucked threads of irony and empathy out of life, has died. She was 88. […] The Nobel award committee’s citation called her the ‘Mozart of poetry,’ a woman who mixed the elegance of language with ‘the fury of Beethoven’ and tackled serious subjects with humor.” More here. * * * Hiroshige Utagawa, “Evening Showerat Atake and the Great Bridge” PEOPLE ON THE BRIDGEby Wisława Szymborska(tr.Read More
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Adios, Christopher Hitchens
Photograph: Felix Clay, from The Guardian, 2008 No one could exactly be taken by surprise at the new that Christopher Hitchens has lost his life to cancer. (I was going to lapse into the “battle” metaphor, but he would despise that—as he did every—cliché.) I first discovered Hitchens when he was writing for The Nation; at that time, his was not an entirely contrarian voice: he spoke in the tradition of his great moral and stylistic hero, George Orwell, a man who was equally uncomfortable with the clichés of both the Left and the Right.Read More
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Adios, E. G. Burrows
I was saddened by John Latta’s report of the death of E. G. Burrows, whose poems have been quiet but articulate companions for many years now. Our paths crossed (via mail, not in person) back when the small press my friend Gary Schroeder and I operated (Wayland Press) was running an annual chapbook contest. Burrows entered the contest and won in 1989, his manuscript having been chosen by that year’s judge, Ted Kooser. We brought out Handsigns for Rain in short order, and it was frankly among the best works we ever saw into print.Read More
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Adios, Samuel Menashe
Samuel Menashe, 1925-2011Photo: Librado Romero/New York Times I was saddened to read about the death of Samuel Menashe, whose wonderful poetry I found by the oddest of accidents. I had volunteered to read for an organization called Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (recently renamed Learning Ally). The first couple of sessions were devoted to poetry textbooks—a dry but necessary task. For my third session, I was handed Samuel Menashe’s New and Selected Poems. Menashe wrote brief, highly concentrated poems that send subtle vibrations out in various directions at once. They are like pebbles dropped into still water.Read More
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Adios, Aunt Betty
Betty Hill—Rest in Peace Readers of this blog know that we lost my Uncle Bill last November. Now his dear wife Betty is gone as well. She suffered from Parkinsons, the progress of which accelerated in the months after Bill’s death. Her passing is sad for those of us who loved her gentle spirit, her generosity and good humor. Pondering the sheer unfairness of her condition sometime back, I remembered this strangely comforting poem by Goethe: SONG OF THE TRAVELER AT EVENING Over all the hills now, Repose. In all the trees now Shows Barely a breath.Read More