Kunitz, Stanley 1976
Vintage poster of Stanley Kunitz’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.
My name is sand: I make
Dumbshows on windowshades;
Wring hands; dissolve; swirl back;
Play furious, grim charades.
– Stanley Kunitz, “The Illusionist”
Listen to Stanley Kunitz’s 1976 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:
Stanley Kunitz begins at 8:30 minutes.
An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.
– Stanley Kunitz, “End of Summer”
Watch Stanley Kunitz discuss poetry and life on The Writing Life:
Stanley Kunitz on poetry and life
In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s “The Writing Life,” Stanley Kunitz (named National Poet Laureate in 2000 at age 95) converses with his onetime student, poet and author of the best critical study of Kunitz poetry, Gregory Orr. At age 88, the much-honored Kunitz reflects: “Poetry is most deeply concerned with telling us what it feels like to be alive.”
