Pinsky: A 'hard act to follow'

By Jamie Allen
CNN.com Senior Writer

(CNN) -- Robert Pinsky's place in American letters has been reserved for some time.

His award-winning career includes the release of the collections "History of My Heart" (1983), which took home the William Carlos Williams Prize, and "The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1965-1995," which won the Lenore Marshall Prize.

But Pinsky might be best remembered for his term as America's poet laureate, which ended recently. He served for a record three years, launched the wildly popular "Favorite Poem Project" and complementary anthology, and helped the Library of Congress celebrate its 200th birthday.

QUICKVOTE Have Robert Pinsky and his Favorite Poem Project prompted you to think about poetry more often? Yes No View Results   The United States Poet Laureate Appointment: Annually by the Librarian of Congress. The Librarian makes the decision based on consultations with present and past Laureates and poetry critics Term: October to May Salary: The Laureate receives a $35,000 annual stipend History: The position has existed for 61 years under two separate titles: Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1937-1986) and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (1986-present). The name was changed by an act of Congress in 1985

ON THE WEB Read a poem by Robert Pinsky ABC Shirt Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

Pinsky will be replaced by Stanley Kunitz, 95. But he leaves with high marks from his peers. Emory University president William Chace, who once tried to recruit Pinsky to Stanford University, has followed his career with great admiration.

"I think he's done an excellent job" as poet laureate, says Chace. "I think it's an extremely difficult and odd job, as all the poet laureates of England have discovered. It takes a very responsible and serious person to do this thing.

"I think he's going to be a hard act to follow," says Chace.

As Pinsky, 59, stepped down, he took time for an e-mail interview with CNN.com. He talked about his highlights as poet laureate, as well as the things he won't miss in the position. Most of all, he seems as committed as ever to his favorite pursuit -- writing poetry.

CNN: Are you satisfied with your three years as poet laureate?

Robert Pinsky: The Favorite Poem Project -- the videos can now be viewed at www.favoritepoem.org -- has been immensely satisfying. And it is continuing, and growing. The anthology, "Americans' Favorite Poems," is now in its sixth printing.

CNN: Did you tell the Library of Congress you had had enough? How does a poet laureate hand off the baton?

RP: The laureate is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, currently Mr. James Billington. After three years, enough was enough, and I'm delighted to be succeeded by Stanley Kunitz, a poet I admire greatly.

CNN: What did you try to accomplish with the position, and did you reach those goals?

RP: The Favorite Poem Project has led to hundreds of FP readings around the country, to the anthology, to the fifty video and audios, and to an archive of many thousands of letters and emails from Americans who wrote to me telling me about a poem they love and its personal significance. The only rule was nothing you wrote yourself, or by a family member. The Web site now has a page of suggestions and accounts by teachers who are using the book and/or the videos as part of teaching poetry, social studies, language skills.

CNN: You've used the position as a bully pulpit -- did you know you were going to do that going in? Or did it just evolve this way?

RP: One thing led to another.

CNN: You were perhaps one of the most visible poet laureates. Why did you choose to make such an effort to "be seen?"

RP: It wasn't a choice. The times seemed right, many people were turning toward poetry. And I think that poetry has a particular importance and appeal in an age of impressive mass media, because the medium for a poem is inherently on an individual, human scale. The medium for the poem is the reader's voice -- the audience's body, not necessarily that of a performer or the poet herself. When you say, "A poem by Elizabeth Bishop," your body is a great artist's medium. This fundamental idea turns out to have powerful and far-reaching implications.

CNN: Have your efforts as poet laureate increased the demand for your work and time?

RP: You bet.

CNN: What will you miss?

RP: Nothing, really. The title was fun, but the Project is going on, as will the appearances on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

CNN: What won't you miss?

RP: Flights to Washington and staying in a hotel there. Explaining "what's a poet laureate?" Mail from people who feel that as taxpayers they have a right to make me their literary agent or editor or researcher.

CNN: What were the daily responsibilities of the job?

RP: There are very few duties, and no daily responsibilities. The responsibilities were created by the immense, unexpected response to the Favorite Poem Project.

CNN: What was your highlight as poet laureate?

RP: Publically, the reading at the White House, with the President and Mrs. Clinton joining Bob Hass, Rita Dove and me reading poems along with D.C. schoolkids, a disabled war veteran. We read Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes and Elizabeth Bishop and Edwin Arlington Robinson and others. The audience included many dozens of poets, including John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Frank Bidart, Carol Muske, Galway Kinnell ... a wonderful night.

But readings in Oxford, Mississippi, and Salina, Kansas, were memorable too. In Des Moines, the governor of Iowa and the Mayor of Des Moines read, along with Vietnamese immigrants (who read poems in Vietnamese), African-American schoolchildren, etc. In Town Hall in New York, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson read along with an adult literacy student, high school students from the Bronx, etc.

Those were high points.

More personally, I got to sit at ringside at the Oscar de la Hoya-Wilfredo Rivera fight in Atlantic City.

CNN: What advice do you have for future poet laureates?

RP: None, really. Or, maybe: don't feel obliged to do anything but work on your poems. It is an honorary post.

CNN: What will Stanley Kunitz bring to the role?

RP: Passion, genius, dignity, seriousness, the conviction that poets and poetry are central, of more enduring and deeper importance than the world of celebrities and politicos.

CNN: Will your "Favorite Poems" project continue?

RP: It certainly will. The fifty videos were all shot on the two coasts; we need another round of production in the middle of the country. And the recordings need to get into schools and libraries.

CNN: What about the online promotion of poetry? Is that an area that needs to be addressed?

RP: I'd say "availability" or "presence," rather than borrowing a term from marketing. Anyway, it's happening. And www.favoritepoem.org is far from the only site!

CNN: Are you seeing more of an interest in poetry these days, as opposed to when you began as poet laureate?

RP: I think so.

CNN: You teach at Boston University. What does a typical young person think of poetry? Is it seen as a tool of social change, or just a way of expressing ideas, thoughts, etc.?

RP: Intuitively, increasingly, the individual nature and human scale of the medium is recognized. But the children deserve the great poetry that has been written. They need to experience, say, George Herbert's poems, in their own voices.

CNN: What should young people think about poetry?

RP: I don't know about "should." But they deserve to understand that it is a vocal art, and a central one in the history of humanity, at the core of our intelligence and memory as creatures.

CNN: If you were to give a State of Poetry address as you leave the poet laureate position, what would you say?

RP: Something like, "Don't worry about the State of Poetry. Just enjoy the poems you love and share your pleasure with others, like the people in this book." Then I would read some of the letters and poems from "Americans' Favorite Poems."

CNN: Will leaving the job affect the amount of free time that you have? What do you plan to do?

RP: Time is precious, and rarely if ever "free." When I have it, often I ruin it. I plan to write some great poems, or die trying.

Library of Congress celebrates bicentennial
April 26, 2000
Robert Pinsky gets unprecedented third term as poet laureate
April 6, 1999

Favorite Poem Project

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