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Ellen Bryant Voigt is the author
of several books of poetry,

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including "Claiming Kin",
"The Forces of Plenty,"

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"Two Trees," and "Kyrie," a
book-like sonnet sequence that

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inspired "Voices of
1918," a symphony composed

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by Ken Langer.

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Her most recent collection
"Shadow of Heaven"

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was a finalist for the
2002 National Book Award.

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Voigt has also written
"The Flexible Lyric,"

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a collection of craft essays.

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Is it 77, you founded--

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76.

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76.

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Somewhere in the mid 70s.

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In 1976 she founded and
directed the first low residency

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MFA writing program
at Goddard College.

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And she now teaches in
its relocated incarnation

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at Warren Wilson College in
Asheville, North Carolina.

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She has received grants and
awards from the National

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Endowment for the Arts, the
Lila Wallace Foundation,

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and the Fellowship of Southern
Writers, among others.

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And she is the state
poet of Vermont.

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And they have yet to
raise a ruckus about her.

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Because I read for music and
a playfulness with language,

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I find that I must read
Ellen's poems immediately over.

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Her linguistic compositions
lure and divert me.

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Once I've mined a Voigt poem
for its musical intention,

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I reread it to find, with
pleasure, that it's also

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saying something.

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What she says is often
a hard wrought insight

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about the dynamics
of family, of waning,

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and pining and the
depths of pathos.

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How she says it is
unflinching and concise.

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In her first book,
"Claiming Kin,"

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she writes an ars poetica that
can be traced through each

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of her subsequent books.

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"The real poem is a knife
edge, quick and clean.

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The bird needs no extra feather.

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The stone sits in
its own shape."

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What distinguishes
Ellen's poetry

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is her ability to meld rhythmic
measures to semantic intention.

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Most poets seemingly
favor either potent music

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or semantic content, but Ellen's
poems seamlessly comprise both.

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They ring true to the
ear, and further, they're

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truly rung by the mind.

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Composer Aaron Copland
has said that the poet has

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a more daunting task than the
composer, that language is

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at a disadvantage to
tone in making music.

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The work of Ellen Bryant Voigt
is a resounding counterpoint.

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She charms language
off the page.

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Her work cries to be let
loose in the air reading voice

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silently.

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My mouth aches from the viscous
vowels she shapes in my mouth.

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She makes a musical
instrument of any voice

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that reads her work aloud.

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We're lucky tonight to have
the craftsman's own instrument.

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Please welcome,
Ellen Bryant Voigt.

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