Archive for the 'Poet Laureate' Category

Last Wednesday, 83-year old Philip Levine, the Pulitzer Prize winner, was named the nation’s 18th poet laureate. His term will be for one year and will begin in October 2011.

When Levine received this very high honor he said, “I want to bring poetry to people who have no idea how relevant poetry is to their lives.” He also plans to bring some lesser-known poets into the forefront. My readers and me are certainly happy to hear this!
Many of Levine’s poems describe Detroit, where he was born, raised and where he also worked in the factories. Most of his poetry depicts the day-to-day life of America’s working class.

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C selects the U.S. poet laureate. He receives an annual stipend of $35,000 and his duties are primarily ceremonial.
Levine succeeds poet W.S. Merwin. Other former poet laureates include: Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Ted Kooser, Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, among others.

Here is one of his many famous poems:

AN ABANDONNED FACTORY IN DETROIT

The gates are chained, the barbed-wire fencing stands,
An iron authority against the snow,
And this grey monument to common sense
Resists the weather. Fears of idle hands,
Of protest, men in league, and of the slow
Corrosion of their minds, still charge this fence.

Beyond, through broken windows one can see
Where the great presses paused between their strokes
And thus remain, in air suspended, caught
In the sure margin of eternity.
The cast-iron wheels have stopped; one counts the spokes
Which movement blurred, the struts inertia fought,

And estimates the loss of human power,
Experienced and slow, the loss of years,
The gradual decay of dignity.
Men lived within these foundries, hour by hour;
Nothing they forged outlived the rusted gears
Which might have served to grind their eulogy.