CA names Carol Muske-Dukes new State Poet Laureate
Gov. Schwarzenegger selected USC Prof Carol Muske-Dukes the new State Poet Laureate, taking over the position from Al Young of Berkeley. She will receive a stipend of $10,000 over two years.
During his tenure as State Poet Laureate, Al Young (who was my thesis advisor at UC Santa Cruz), created an extensive website of poetry links, read all over the state and back, including Ventura College by my invitation. Al did one heckuva job promoting poetry and deserves our gratitude and congratulations.
Al’s will be a tough act to follow, for sure, but I’ve met Carol Muske-Dukes, and found her to be a warm and encouraging person. I am sure she will do a wonderful job as poet laureate and visit us here in Ventura too!
The video above features Carol Muske-Dukes with John Lithgow at a reading April 2008 at USC. Fast forward through the long intro of John Lithgow to about 2 minutes to hear about Carol M-D, then another minute or so to hear about her husband the actor David Dukes who died a few years ago, and to 4 minutes to get to the poetry. If you go to Carol M-D’s channel, you’ll find video of the whole evening.
Here’s a video from that night which features Carol M-D reading poems from her new book, Sparrow:
Text of a poem published on Slate.com
When He Fell
Posted Tuesday, April 23, 2002, at 5:20 PM ET
Hear Carol Muske-Dukes reading this poem here.
When he fell, strangers ran to him.
Strangers called for help, lifted
his body and carried it. Then strangers
cut him, emptied him. Their ideas
of death determined when I would
touch him again. Their ideas of death
closed door after door between us,
altered his face, altered his presence—
violated the contract, the marriage,
took away even his wounded heart.
When he was at last delivered to me,
I was no longer myself—just as he
was no longer within identity. They
had taken everything from us. Authority—
everywhere I turned. Just as he and I
once thought we were authorities over
our own lives, our work, our sense of
mortality, imagination—oh, and that
“sense of loss” that predicated everything—
you know, what we called our personal lives.
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What is the song on that video clip oh no mr bill?
Wow, off the top of my head, I couldn’t tell you but I can check the clip on my vodpod and see if I know!
Unusual question! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Good. Sure.
Not being a frequent visitor of word press, I did not know where else to submit the question
That is a brilliant poem. In the end these kinds of positions are very demanding, it does take a sacrfice on the part of the poet to expose themselves in this way. It is strange that most poets are shy and self-effacing, a kind of reverse honesty. That poem is so good, I am sure the poet will do a wonderful job.
That’s a great poem. I’ve heard her read before and it was really good.
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