Sherry Chandler

Stanley Kunitz and Poets House

Another of those vague unattributable quotations that float around in my head is this – that poets either die young or live to a grand old age. Stanley Kunitz is approaching his 100th birthday. From today’s NYTimes:

Of all the commanding inventions from Mr. Kunitz, few are as instantly accessible as the haven he created down in SoHo so that poets and readers could have a special place of their own - Poets House. In the 20 years since Mr. Kunitz co-founded it with Elizabeth Kray, the place has become one of the quiet treasures of the city. New visitors can confront, browse and savor 45,000 volumes of poems stacked nine shelves high. It is one of the grandest open-stack collections of poems available to the American public, glowing unpretentiously in a wood-floored setting one flight up at 72 Spring Street.
…

Poets House generates scores of literary events, including a showcase gathering of more than 1,300 books of poetry published annually across the country, so that bards sung and unsung can rally in a lyric-mart of mutual encouragement.

There is much more blooming at Mr. Kunitz’s place, including a program to teach city librarians how to overcome “the poetry anxiety” that shackles readers’ imaginations. Poetry circulation is reported tripling at the nine city branches involved so far.

I suppose poetry circulation could triple and still not be all that high: three times three is nine. Nevertheless, a remarkable achievement for a man who has had nearly a century’s worth of remarkable achievements.

Possibly related posts:

Poets Laureate

Poets, Philosophers, and Dogs

100 Blogging Poets in 100 Days

Poets for Human Rights 2007 Poetry Contests

Evening with Poets

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.