Mr. Simic, this morning I was looking through Richard Hugo's
"31 Letters and 13 Dreams" and came
across the poem "A Letter To Simic From Boulder", 1977 book
by Hugo.
And I was just wondering, I was looking
through the acknowledgments and I
didn't see that the poem had appeared in a magazine
before it appeared in the book.
My question is really, did you know about the poem
before it appeared in the book?
I did because what happened was there
was a meeting in San Francisco of some of the--
what is they used to call the Council of--
it was a little magazine.
So it was a time of [INAUDIBLE] and the little magazines--
CLMP?
Huh?
CLMP?
That's right.
I mean, the government used to give money
to the little magazines.
They would gather a committee of poets or writers
who would feature writers, and they
would hand out different amounts of money
through literary magazines and really kept it blank,
many of them.
I mean, a thousand dollars, $2,000.
It was a lot of money then.
So they're meeting in San Francisco
and some of them [INAUDIBLE].
And I went to go see.
There I was in Santa Rosa then with some friends.
So I got to the Trump Hotel, a big hotel in San Francisco.
And peeped into to the restaurant and it was late
and there was a big round table.
And a bunch of boys sitting there.
And I said, hi, and it was a chair.
And three guys sat next [INAUDIBLE] I met Richard Hugo
before, and it's nice I feel, tried to--
there were these kind of working class
older poets who asked you.
They were very sensible questions.
How are you doing?
Can you pay the rent?
Do you pay the rent?
So he said, how're you doing Charlie?
And I guess I said, oh, I just came back from Boulder
to research my [INAUDIBLE] and I left in 1953.
And he said, oh Boulder, Boulder, Boulder.
He says, I see [? Danube ?] so this is this bridge,
that bridge, that bridge.
And so that was pretty cool, as I
said he wasn't [INAUDIBLE] he should never.
I used to bomb it twice a week.
[LAUGHTER]
So I said you know I was down there, you bombed.
I mean, he was really, I mean, very, very upset and shocked.
And I told him you know he was like--
I think he was 20 years old and he
was a bomber releasing bombs.
And I mean, it was war.
I mean, I didn't blame him really, He was so fucked up,
I mean, Richard Hugo's .
But you know he really felt guilty.
I mean, he felt I mean, it's one thing to bomb, and hear
somebody they're alive.
And well that's how the bomb came.
And then the second poem when he wrote it.
Thank you.
Any more questions?
I recently re-read your book Dime Store Alchemy
about Joseph Cornell's artwork.
Sure.
And I'm a big fan of Cornell's work.
I enjoyed your book.
And I was wondering, what prompted you to write it?
And also, have you written many other poems
about other artists' work?
Well, I mean, no.
It was a friend of mine who I help him through it
and do this magazine still a publisher of Ecco Press.
He the idea of why not have poets and writers
write about the artists of their like.
And Mark Strand wrote about Edward Hopper.
Guy Davenport wrote about I think
Balthus and somebody else.
Even people wrote about different artists.
And so then said, why don't you write about Cornell?
He was talking to Cornell.
And so you know I said, well, OK.
And what happened was I started writing the book
and writing a series of essays, art essays,
I mean critical essays.
And but well since I've read what
was written about Cornell up to that, and there was not much.
But anybody who wrote [INAUDIBLE] they
wrote interest to be clear.
And really let's get to quibble [? with it ?]..
And I just realized this is a really broad approach.
And what I essentially did is I took out bit of piece
from the essays and then found the title for them
and then put that in.
Because that would be much more in the spirit of Cornell, who
was a plan of--
he was a man who was a great artist that
draws from [INAUDIBLE] he was not [? a sculptor ?]
but he knew how to do collage, genius at collage.
So it's a collage from by a much longer manuscript, which was
I found finally very boring.
And I could not really compete with that
really so that's how the book came out the way you came out.
Great question.
One more.
[INAUDIBLE] ?
So as a writer of your age and who
has so many accomplishments, how do you
find yourself still passionate about your work?
I know many writers as they get older and continue
to work on certain things lose that kind of passion.
How do you retain that?
I don't.
[LAUGHTER]
No, I think it's a sense of never,
never quite doing it right.
And trying something just a little bit different.
I mean, it's very difficult not to repeat yourself.
I mean, If you take the complete poems of poet,
if you read all of it, [? Stevens ?]
[and a great poet ?] when you realize that they do repeat
themselves for various reasons.
So I want to get away from this.
And sometimes it's possible.
It happens.
But it's a compulsion.
It really is.
It was a truly male figure that you can't break it.
And through wearing a tuxedo and--
anyway, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]