Now I'm very pleased to introduce Carl's introducer,
Barbara Allen.
Barbara is a longtime reader and fan of Carl's work.
She's a graduate of the MFA program at the University
of Arizona, and a recipient of an Arizona
Fellowship for the Arts Grant.
She works at the University of Arizona library,
has three children, and has just completed a novel.
Please welcome Barbara.
In addition to being on the faculty
at the State University of New York, Buffalo,
Carl Dennis is the author of 11 books of poetry,
including most recently Callings.
His honors include the Pulitzer Prize in 2002
for his collection, Practical Gods.
He has also received the Ruth Lilly Prize and a fellowship
at the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, Italy,
not that I'm jealous.
He is a recipient of both the Guggenheim
and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
Carl is consistently reviewed well,
whether it is in the New York Times or Bloomsbury
Review here's what Stephen Burt in The New Republic says.
"His lines say what fortunate parents tell punk rock teens.
People give their whole lives for the leisure
you cherish, for the security of the town that you say you hate.
The punks have a point, though, as wise as parents knows--
as wise parents know.
And Dennis is wise.
He is one of the poets whose advice we could do well
to take."
Now as many of you know, we poet types can be a bit obnoxious.
We like to gossip, speculate, argue.
So not too far in the past, I happened
to be participating in one of these poet-like activities
and the subject of Carl Dennis came around.
How does he do it?
Someone asked.
Actually it was Janice Dewey over there.
He's in Buffalo, that bastion of language poetry,
and language subterfuge.
We decided, he did it probably by being like his poems.
And what are his poems like?
They invite while holding their ground.
They are generous.
They are curious without getting lost.
They know themselves.
And they are able to make an uneasy peace
with contradictions and complications.
They encourage us to do the same.
Let me quote Carl's poem, "Dancers".
"Still they agree for this evening, at least,
that dancing is something they're willing to try.
Maybe tonight for once, they'll be
able to feel what they'd like to feel, that moving to music
is an instance, not merely a metaphor, of life
lived as it should be."
It is my honor to give you Carl Dennis.