Poets sponsored by the Ruth Stephan Poetry Center.
I have a couple of announcements I'd
like to make before we have an introduction.
A week from today on December 17th in this auditorium we're
going to have a happenstance.
It's a kind of sensory convergence.
We're going to use poetry and music, slides,
and films to celebrate the planet we live on.
And on January 7th, we will have the third poet in our series.
It will be in this auditorium also.
And that poet will be Richard Shelton
who is a Tucson resident and who has been asked to make
the introduction tonight.
I'm going to break my rule.
Short introductions and give you a little longer one.
Because I think there's no other way to cover this.
Mr. Hitchcock is going to read to us tonight.
He is a giant on the literary scene today.
And people who follow contemporary poetry I'm sure
will agree with me.
He's also a pretty good guy to [? spell ?],,
as you'll see in a few moments.
His poetry is often the gentle, not always.
But I feel that he's tough as nails.
And I think a lot of other people
would agree with that too.
I mean he can be tough as nails.
I think it's justified by the standards he has
set for himself and for others.
He can't be compared to anyone because there
is no one with whom he's comparable
that I know of today anyway.
His books of poetry include Poems
in Print, published in 1962, Tactics of Survival,
1965, The Dolphin with the Revolver in its Teeth,
1967, Ship of Bells, 1968, and "12 Stanzas in Praise
of the Holy Chariot," a group of side poems published in 1968.
He is the editor of two anthologies
of found poetry, Losers, Weepers and Lost and Found.
He's the author of seven plays and a volume of short stories.
He's currently writing a surrealistic novel.
This gives you some idea of his literary output.
He is also a very, very well-known publisher.
He's the editor and publisher of Kayak,
which is regarded by many as the country's leading magazine
of contemporary poetry.
He also edits and publishes Kayak Books,
which has won two successive major awards for quality
from the National Endowment for the Arts.
By means of Kayak, the magazine, and Kayak Books,
Mr. Hitchcock has discovered, and published,
and encouraged many young--
or not so young-- but at least unknown poets.
In this way, he has been able to push certain people,
to encourage them and help them.
I'm one of those people and I want to thank him publicly,
not only for myself, but for so many others whom he has taken
a chance on and published.
Mr. Hitchcock was always a pioneer
and he has expanded contemporary literature considerably,
I think.
by working in such areas and encouraging such areas
as the side poems, the collage poems, prose poems,
and many others--
found poems.
He was, for many years, a journalist
and has edited the San Francisco Review in 1961 and '62.
He's also been associated with the theater for many years
as an actor, a playwright, and a director.
It is, however, as a poet that he comes to us tonight
and I think he has earned that title.
I think poet is a title which has to be earned.
And many would be poets hanging out their shingles
before they've earned it.
This man has really earned it.
And how well he has earned it, we
will find out very soon when you hear him read.
I'm honored to know him and delighted
to present him to you.
George Hitchcock, poet.
[APPLAUSE]