Thank you, Joe, for this informed and informative take on Larry's
career, to which I'd add only the recommendation of his book of
short stories, _Black Freckles_.
He was my first and best teacher (at Iowa), whom I continue to
miss and mourn. One of his "teachings" had to do with using the
names of things like trees, rather than simply the generic (to him,
lazy choice) "tree" in a poem, and trees of all denominations were
a consistent feature of his work right up to the end. _Elegy_
includes a poem about a pair of trees (read it to find out what
kinds) that he'd pass on his route home from work at night and with
which he liked to stop and chat awhile, especially about whatever
might be wrong with his life at the time. One of these trees points
out to him in the poem that he doesn't "even have a car anymore,"
which indicates what familiar terms Larry was on with trees and why
he insisted that they be addressed and referred to by their proper
names. It was as much a matter of propriety--that of the poet in and
toward his/her world--as of accuracy.
Candice
>>Larry Levis died at age 50 two years ago. He grew up in California, but
>>in the
>>_other_ California, the central valley, an agricultural region. Some of
>>his
>>most moving poems are about horses. His final book, _Elegy_, was in
>>preparation when he died & was edited by David St. John & Philip Levine.
>>Most
>>of his poems are long enough to not excerpt well, so I will refrain. He
>>may be
>>the only American poet of his generation to have benefited from the
>>influence
>>of Rilke, developing a long, meditative line in his later work that
>>would seem
>>to owe very little to Whitman. If I were advising someone who had not
>>read any
>>of his work, I would suggest they begin with his first fully mature
>>book,
>>_Winter Stars_, then go on to _The Widening Spell of the Leaves_ & to
>>_Elegy_;
>>after that, one could go back & take a look at the earlier work, which
>>also
>>has its (more ironic) pleasures.
>>
>>Joseph Duemer
>
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