WEBVTT

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Mr. Simic, this morning I was
looking through Richard Hugo's

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"31 Letters and 13
Dreams" and came

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across the poem "A Letter To
Simic From Boulder", 1977 book

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by Hugo.

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And I was just
wondering, I was looking

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through the
acknowledgments and I

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didn't see that the poem
had appeared in a magazine

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before it appeared in the book.

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My question is really, did
you know about the poem

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before it appeared in the book?

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I did because what
happened was there

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was a meeting in San
Francisco of some of the--

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what is they used to
call the Council of--

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it was a little magazine.

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So it was a time of [INAUDIBLE]
and the little magazines--

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CLMP?

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Huh?

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CLMP?

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That's right.

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I mean, the government
used to give money

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to the little magazines.

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They would gather a
committee of poets or writers

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who would feature
writers, and they

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would hand out different
amounts of money

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through literary magazines
and really kept it blank,

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many of them.

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I mean, a thousand
dollars, $2,000.

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It was a lot of money then.

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So they're meeting
in San Francisco

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and some of them [INAUDIBLE].

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And I went to go see.

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There I was in Santa Rosa
then with some friends.

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So I got to the Trump Hotel,
a big hotel in San Francisco.

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And peeped into to the
restaurant and it was late

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and there was a big round table.

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And a bunch of
boys sitting there.

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And I said, hi,
and it was a chair.

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And three guys sat next
[INAUDIBLE] I met Richard Hugo

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before, and it's nice
I feel, tried to--

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there were these
kind of working class

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older poets who asked you.

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They were very
sensible questions.

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How are you doing?

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Can you pay the rent?

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Do you pay the rent?

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So he said, how're
you doing Charlie?

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And I guess I said, oh, I
just came back from Boulder

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to research my [INAUDIBLE]
and I left in 1953.

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And he said, oh Boulder,
Boulder, Boulder.

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He says, I see [? Danube ?]
so this is this bridge,

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that bridge, that bridge.

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And so that was
pretty cool, as I

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said he wasn't [INAUDIBLE]
he should never.

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I used to bomb it twice a week.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So I said you know I was
down there, you bombed.

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I mean, he was really, I mean,
very, very upset and shocked.

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And I told him you
know he was like--

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I think he was 20
years old and he

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was a bomber releasing bombs.

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And I mean, it was war.

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I mean, I didn't blame him
really, He was so fucked up,

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I mean, Richard Hugo's .

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But you know he
really felt guilty.

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I mean, he felt I mean, it's
one thing to bomb, and hear

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somebody they're alive.

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And well that's
how the bomb came.

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And then the second
poem when he wrote it.

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Thank you.

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Any more questions?

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I recently re-read your
book Dime Store Alchemy

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about Joseph Cornell's artwork.

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Sure.

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And I'm a big fan
of Cornell's work.

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I enjoyed your book.

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And I was wondering, what
prompted you to write it?

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And also, have you
written many other poems

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about other artists' work?

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Well, I mean, no.

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It was a friend of mine
who I help him through it

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and do this magazine still
a publisher of Ecco Press.

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He the idea of why not
have poets and writers

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write about the
artists of their like.

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And Mark Strand wrote
about Edward Hopper.

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Guy Davenport
wrote about I think

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Balthus and somebody else.

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Even people wrote about
different artists.

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And so then said, why don't
you write about Cornell?

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He was talking to Cornell.

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And so you know
I said, well, OK.

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And what happened was I
started writing the book

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and writing a series
of essays, art essays,

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I mean critical essays.

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And but well since
I've read what

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was written about Cornell up to
that, and there was not much.

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But anybody who wrote
[INAUDIBLE] they

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wrote interest to be clear.

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And really let's get to
quibble [? with it ?]..

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And I just realized this
is a really broad approach.

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And what I essentially did
is I took out bit of piece

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from the essays and then
found the title for them

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and then put that in.

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Because that would be much more
in the spirit of Cornell, who

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was a plan of--

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he was a man who was
a great artist that

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draws from [INAUDIBLE] he
was not [? a sculptor ?]

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but he knew how to do
collage, genius at collage.

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So it's a collage from by a much
longer manuscript, which was

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I found finally very boring.

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And I could not really
compete with that

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really so that's how the book
came out the way you came out.

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Great question.

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One more.

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One more.

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[INAUDIBLE] ?

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So as a writer of
your age and who

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has so many
accomplishments, how do you

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find yourself still
passionate about your work?

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I know many writers as
they get older and continue

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to work on certain things
lose that kind of passion.

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How do you retain that?

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I don't.

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[LAUGHTER]

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No, I think it's
a sense of never,

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never quite doing it right.

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And trying something just
a little bit different.

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I mean, it's very difficult
not to repeat yourself.

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I mean, If you take the
complete poems of poet,

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if you read all of
it, [? Stevens ?]

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[and a great poet ?] when you
realize that they do repeat

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themselves for various reasons.

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So I want to get away from this.

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And sometimes it's possible.

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It happens.

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But it's a compulsion.

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It really is.

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It was a truly male figure
that you can't break it.

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And through wearing
a tuxedo and--

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anyway, thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]