By Luke Deming
Saginaw is often known for its athletes and entertainers, but SVSU President Eric Gilbertson pointed out there is something else the city is known for - poetry.
The 11th triennial Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize was awarded to Robert Pinsky last Tuesday. The $3,000 prize is given every three years to an American poet’s individual book of poems This year’s prize covers work published in 2005, 2006, or 2007. The award is in honor of the great Saginaw poet, Theodore Roethke. At the time of his death in 1963, Roethke had won more awards than any other American poet.
Notable actor Richard Fitzpatrick, who has appeared in Good Will Hunting, Sixteen Blocks, and the TV show The X Files, mentioned his thankfulness for Roethke’s ability to write about the rich experiences of a fifteen-year-old boy.
“Roethke showed me the way back to the believing boy in my skin,” Fitzpatrick said.
Pinsky, who is known for his political poetry, won the award with his book of poetry Gulf Music. Pinsky is a former U.S. Poet Laureate, created the Favorite Poem Project, and has appeared regularly on PBS and The Colbert Report.
Pinsky, Fitzpatrick, and poetry prize judge Lloyd Schwartz talked about Roethke and read some of his pieces such as Roethke’s 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner “The Waking.” Pinsky also read a few poems from Gulf Music.
Professor of English, Basil Clark, was pleased to see great poetry presented.
“Its very reassuring to see people come together this way and enjoy the evening together,” Clark said. “[It was special] to hear people of this stature read and share their experiences of Roethke.”
Education junior Skyler Loomis enjoyed the event too. He said, “I thought the whole thing was really enjoyable. I really liked hearing Robert Pinsky talk about his poetry.”
The award was special this year because it is part of last week’s festival that celebrated the 100-year anniversary of Roethke’s birth and also because this year’s three judges were the same judges that awarded the first ever Roethke prize in 1968.
While Pinsky has had tremendous success as a poet, he can’t remember when he wanted to write professionally.
“There was never really [a moment] when I said ‘now I want to be a professional writer.’ It was the only thing I felt good at.“
While many critics have stated that the days of great American poets are over and claiming the younger generation is unable to produce a great writer, Pinsky holds a different opinion of the belief.
“That’s baloney. They have been saying that for hundreds of years. When Longfellow and Whittier got old and died they said, ‘well the great generation of American poets is over.’ And then they said the same thing when T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens died. That kind of thing just goes on forever, it’s not significant.”
In his acceptance speech, Pinsky talked about his multiple interpretations of the line “I learn by going where I have to go” from Roethke’s most famous piece “The Waking.”
“[At first] I thought it as a description of living without meddling, without a lot of reflection, or attention, or planning, or guidance counselors or hiring consultants or goals. Just live by experience rather than anticipation,” Pinsky said.
He explained how he felt stupid when his second interpretation revealed that the poem was about coming to terms with death. But his third interpretation revealed to him that the poem was about one’s legacy being carried on, just like Roethke’s still is today.
“We don’t only go into morality… we don’t only go into whatever nothingness or after life we think about…We [also] go into memory.”
No comments:
Post a Comment