Charles Simic named new U.S. Poet Laureate
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
I had a great view of the nation’s capitol as I stood in the poetry rooms at the U.S. Library of Congress. (photo by Dorothy K. Fletcher)
The U.S. Library of Congress has named poet Charles Simic America’s new laureate. Technically the position is called the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. In keeping with custom, Simic will serve a one or two year term. Our new laureate was actually born in Yugoslavia. He arrived in the United States in 1954 and has been a U.S. citizen for 36 years. “I am especially touched and honored to be selected,” said Simic, “because I am an immigrant boy who didn’t speak English until I was 15.”
Simic has said he started writing poetry in high school “to get the attention of girls.”
Simic’s accomplishments run as long as the Mississippi River. He’s authored 18 books of poetry. Simic is also an essayist, translator, editor and professor emeritus of creative writing at the University of New Hampshire where he’s taught for 34 years. He’s won a Pulitzer and the Griffin Prize, and he also was a national Book Award finalist. His new collection of poems ‘That Little Something’ will be released in February, 2008.
Simic’s work is very elegant, but it’s also accessible on different levels. Anyone can read his work and take something away. But those who study poetry will see elements and techniques reflecting skill and dexterity. A unique, darkly amusing poem is archived at the Verse Magazine blog. “Night Clerk in a Roach Motel” manages to impart beauty created through dark lines like, “Doors that show traces/ Of numerous attempts at violent entry…” It’s easy to envision a seedy hallway full of doors that have seen better years in a hotel we’d really prefer not to be in.
Simic follows Ted Kooser as laureate. Kooser and former laureate Billy Collins did so much to return poetry to the forefront of American literature. Here’s hoping Simic will do the same.
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