Donald Hall Is America's New Poet Laureate

June 18, 2006 6:59 PM

Donald Hall Is America's New Poet Laureate
The New Hampshire resident, and widower of fellow poet, Jane Kenyon, has been named as the United States' new poet laureate. Hall has won many awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and a Robert Frost Medal, and has served as poet laureate of his state. He has had a distinguished literary career.
posted by ericb (26 comments total)

Besides his poetry I strongly recommend his engaging autobiographical works: Seasons at Eagle Pond and Life Work.
posted by ericb at 7:06 PM on June 18, 2006

I recently borrow up his Without from my local library. Excellent book of poems. Even though it is in a style that I, as a rule, find off-putting, I thought it was excellent.
posted by Kattullus at 7:21 PM on June 18, 2006

good for him : >

...In the early 1990s, he served on the National Council on the Arts, an advisory body to the National Endowment for the Arts. It was a time of bitter political controversy over NEA grants to art projects, especially those involving homosexual themes, and Hall argued strongly that the NEA should not act from the "fear of bigots." ...
very good.

... he's not the only game in town. Later this month, James Monroe High School in the Bronx will honor its first ever poet laureate, Tiffany Otero. ...
posted by amberglow at 7:47 PM on June 18, 2006

All hail Nipsey Russell.


posted by sharksandwich at 7:48 PM on June 18, 2006

Hall discussed his duties as poet laureate in a recent interview with Robert Siegel on NPR. He's thinking towards a radio show on NPR or a project for PBS or cable, but these are only his preliminary ideas. In any event, it will be interesting to see what Hall makes of his laureateship--there's lots of leeway. A wonderful poet.
posted by Ricky_gr10 at 9:12 PM on June 18, 2006

The above-mentioned interview, and text of the poems he reads in it, are archived.
posted by Ricky_gr10 at 9:17 PM on June 18, 2006

I heard him at a poetry reading. He was pretty boring.
posted by whoshotwho at 9:21 PM on June 18, 2006

What's with all these poems about barns and flowers and stuff?

BORING.
posted by delmoi at 9:22 PM on June 18, 2006

I like poetry in general, but what I read on that "archived" page above seems quite mediocre.
posted by paladin at 9:31 PM on June 18, 2006

he's not a hit you over the head with brilliance kind of poet, paladin ... he's subtler than that ...

and delmoi, if you really think it's about barns and flowers ... just forget it
posted by pyramid termite at 10:34 PM on June 18, 2006

He'll never be as good as Ted Kooser.
posted by j-urb at 11:18 PM on June 18, 2006

I heartily second the recommendation of Life Work. One of the most important and beautiful books I've ever read.

(also, pretty sure delmoi was being ironical.)
posted by LooseFilter at 11:29 PM on June 18, 2006

The six or so poems archived on NPR are pretty good, but not something I'd spend an afternoon reading. Maybe city folk do sincerely go for this pastoral stuff, but its election still rings like false nostalgia to me. I haven't read anything comprable to Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror that has been published since, but then again I don't read much.
posted by ori at 11:57 PM on June 18, 2006

I dunno, j-urb. Kooser always struck me as stream-of-conscious rambling while staring at a Hallmark's card. But to be fair, so does most modern stuff.
posted by RavinDave at 4:24 AM on June 19, 2006

For the kids: Try Ox-Cart Man. It's slow but beautiful.
posted by mountainmambo at 4:41 AM on June 19, 2006

The One Day, especially the poem "Prophecy", is about a unboring as poetry gets. His essay, "Poetry and Ambition" should be required reading for any aspiring poet. A safe choice for laureate, but hardly the worst.
posted by theinsectsarewaiting at 5:52 AM on June 19, 2006

I thought Weeds and Peonies was just heartwrenching.

Frankly, I'm a little cynical that this administration bothered to appoint any poet laureate at all. But I'm glad they did.
posted by jenii at 6:53 AM on June 19, 2006

Homer kept writing about people getting stabbed. and don't get me started on the endless catalogue of ships

BORING
posted by matteo at 7:36 AM on June 19, 2006

Kooser always struck me as stream-of-conscious rambling while staring at a Hallmark's card. But to be fair, so does most modern stuff.

There was some sarcasm in that statement. Personally I would like to see Baraka be named laureate, how cool would that be? I think the person who gets to be laureate, is the person who is least offensive,
posted by j-urb at 9:50 AM on June 19, 2006

In my satement I mean, the one where I said "Kooser is better."
posted by j-urb at 9:50 AM on June 19, 2006

I would like to see Baraka be named laureate

As the adage goes, I just threw up a little in my mouth.
posted by ori at 11:22 AM on June 19, 2006

j-urb ... I know Kooser. Helluva nice guy. And I'll admit to a general bias against modern poetry(*) wherein every bon mot or turn of phrase is considered a poem. Bah! By that standard, my favorite "poet" is Ross MacDonald.

----------
(*) except Brautigan ... loved the Braut man. Met him once ... real twitchy sort, trouble with eye-contact and talked into his chest ... but loved his stuff.
posted by RavinDave at 11:35 AM on June 19, 2006

This bit from The Seventh Inning has always stuck with me:

4. addressing a urinal perhaps,
perhaps poised over a white toilet
with feet spread wide and head tilted back:
oh, what’delicious permission! what
luxury of letting go! what luxe
yellow curve of mildest ecstasy!
Granted we may not compare it to
poignant and crimson bliss, it is as
voluptuous as rain all night long

It's so perfect... when I take a long-delayed piss I think to myself, "what luxury of letting go! what luxe yellow curve of mildest ecstasy!"

good on ya, hall
posted by jcruelty at 2:42 PM on June 19, 2006

Let me also reccomend his essays collected in Breakfast Served Any Time All Day. They really seem to get in your head.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:47 PM on June 19, 2006

Homer kept writing about people getting stabbed. and don't get me started on the endless catalogue of ships

BORING

Yeah. I'm working on a list of poets I've read who are better than Hall and Homer, and numbering them according their merits.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 6:31 PM on June 19, 2006

This post inspired me to read Without which just so happened to be on my kitchen table because Kattullus* borrowed it from the library.

I have not the words. It was amazing. And heartwrenching. I had to lie on my bed in the fetal position for a while to recover. In a good way.

*This is not some bizarre coincidence, he's my husband.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:41 PM on June 19, 2006