Erato Serenading Thalia, Euterpe, and Melpomene by Charles-Joseph Natoire. In the public domain. While I was living on Jenifer Street in Madison I discovered that a woman who had befriended me as a kind of kindred spirit in Anthropological Linguistics class lived across the street. D. was a poet. While still in high school one…
Tag: Madison
A Student's First Book of Poems
In my poet’s biography, I usually state that I began writing after retiring from library work. That is not quite true. Like many book lovers, I wrote poems in college. In 1974-75 the poets I met in Literatura Hispanoamericana inspired me. How could anyone remain unaffected by José Martí’s “Dos Patrias?”* Even though my Spanish…
The Living Female Poet: Diane Wakoski
Diane Wakoski gave a poetry reading in Madison at the Good Karma Coffee Shop in 1975 or 1976. I can’t find confirmation of this, not even in my diaries. But I remember it clearly. Here was the female poet who lived. I’m sure I arrived after working an evening shift at the H.C. White College…
Making a Promise to Robert Hayden
I told him that I liked his poems and would look for his book. He said, “It’s not very well known. You probably won’t be able to find it around here.” Mr. Hayden spoke with me after I stopped in front of him on my way out the door. For minutes after his reading, I…