July 29, 2012
THE PORTRAIT by Stanley Kunitz

My mother never forgave my father
for killing himself,
especially at such an awkward time
and in a public park,
that spring
when I was waiting to be born.
She locked his name
in her deepest cabinet
and would not let him out,
though I could hear him thumping.
When I came down from the attic
with the pastel portrait in my hand
of a long lipped stranger
with a brave mustache
and deep brown level eyes,
she ripped it into shreds
without a single word
and slapped me hard.
In my sixty-fourth year
I can feel my cheek
still burning.

“The Portrait” by Stanley Kunitz

12:23pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zv4pbyQK-FIi
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: poem stanley kunitz 
July 29, 2012
It’s the birthday of poet Stanley Kunitz, born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1905. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father committed suicide in a public park before Kunitz was born, and his mother, Yetta, erased all traces of Stanley’s father from the house, and refused to speak about him. His third book, Selected Poems (1958), was rejected by eight publishers — three of them refused to even read it. When it was finally published, it won the Pulitzer Prize. When someone asked W.H. Auden why nobody knew about Stanley Kunitz, Auden said: “It’s strange, but give him time. A hundred years or so. He’s a patient man.” It was more than 10 years before he published his next book, The Testing Tree (1971), and slowly but surely, people began to take notice. He was appointed the poet laureate when he was 95 years old. He died at the age of 100.

It’s the birthday of poet Stanley Kunitz, born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1905.

His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father committed suicide in a public park before Kunitz was born, and his mother, Yetta, erased all traces of Stanley’s father from the house, and refused to speak about him.

His third book, Selected Poems (1958), was rejected by eight publishers — three of them refused to even read it. When it was finally published, it won the Pulitzer Prize. When someone asked W.H. Auden why nobody knew about Stanley Kunitz, Auden said: “It’s strange, but give him time. A hundred years or so. He’s a patient man.”

It was more than 10 years before he published his next book, The Testing Tree (1971), and slowly but surely, people began to take notice. He was appointed the poet laureate when he was 95 years old. He died at the age of 100.

12:18pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zv4pbyQK_K0f
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: poet poetry stanley kunitz 
July 29, 2012
"It is out of the dailiness of life that one is driven into the deepest recesses of the self."

— Stanley Kunitz

12:10pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zv4pbyQKz0kJ
Filed under: quote stanley kunitz 
May 14, 2012
Remembering Stanley Kunitz


“The universe is a continuous web.
Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers.”

Stanley Kunitz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, died on this day in 2006.



The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden

4:40pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zv4pbyLUDHQA
Filed under: poet Stanley Kunitz 
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