PLUTZIK SERIES CELEBRATES 40TH

 

Pinsky

Why do people turn to poetry in times of challenge and disaster?

That was the question asked by former Poet Laureate of the United States Robert Pinsky as he opened the 40th season of the Plutzik Memorial Poetry Series.

"Poetry provides intimacy and penetration into our humanity," Pinsky said. "In the presence of such enormity, it uses language like human currency-the dimes and quarters of our daily interactions-on the scale of one person, coming from one breath. It's not that it heals you, but it fills an appetite for something on the individual level."

Pinsky is the latest in a long line of nationally recognized poets to read and talk about their work on campus as part of the Plutzik series. Founded in 1962 in honor of the life and poetic career of Hyam Plutzik (1911-1962), professor of English, the series is one of the oldest literary programs of its type in the country.

Drawing from his most recent collection, Jersey Rain, Pinsky read poems with relevance to the aftermath of September 11 as well as some humorous works.

Pinsky, who was poet laureate from 1997 to 2000, is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. He is creator of the Favorite Poem Project, a regular contributor to The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and poetry editor of the Internet magazine Slate.

The Plutzik series is administered by the Department of English.

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