Pulitzer Prize-winning poet comes to Pittsburgh

A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet will bring his rhymes and prose to Pittsburgh tonight. ‘If you… A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet will bring his rhymes and prose to Pittsburgh tonight. ‘If you have a poem on the page, that’s not the poem,’ said Dr. Samuel Hazo, founder and director of the International Poetry Forum.’ ‘The poem is not until you hear it.’ To kick off the IPF’s 2008-09 performance season, Hazo invited Paul Muldoon, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, to read his poetry tonight. Currently a professor at Princeton University and a poetry editor for The New Yorker, Muldoon worked as a radio and television producer for the BBC before moving to the United States in 1987. ‘ Muldoon has published 10 collections of poetry, which include his 2002 collection ‘Moy Sand and Gravel,’ for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. His most recent collection is ‘Horse Latitudes,’ which he released in 2006. Muldoon’s work centers around a playful exploration of the English language. From twisted rhymes to unusual synonyms, Muldoon finds surprising ways to manipulate the elements of language within traditional poetic forms, from the sonnet to the sestina.’ Muldoon also mixes history, often from his own Irish heritage, with the contemporary moment to create poems that transcend time. ‘ At times, Muldoon’s literary and historical allusions seem obscure, and his complex interest in the etymology of words can seem daunting. ‘I find [Muldoon’s] work difficult,’ said Hazo. ‘I’m hoping his particular charm as an Irishman comes across [in his reading], and I hear that it does. Some of his poems are not readily apprehensible to the ear upon hearing them, or at least I find them so. I want to be proved wrong.’ Muldoon’s success at interweaving the personal narratives of something as minute as a word into the general collective history makes his work an intensely rewarding experience. The IPF hosted more than 800 poets and performers from 38 countries in the past 42 years. Distinguished and diverse poets and performers, such as John Updike, Naomi Shihab Nye, Princess Grace of Monaco, Tennessee Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks and John Berryman, all performed for the IPF. A comment Hazo recalls making when he introduced the poet W.H. Auden at a reading at Duquesne University in 1966 sparked the idea for the IPF. ‘I said it would be a wonderful thing if we had a forum in this city that could introduce poets to the public and not just students and teachers,’ said Hazo. The next day, then-president of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Ted Hazlett, called Hazo and suggested that they try to start a poetry forum in the city. ‘ Although at first unsure how successful the IPF would be, Hazo said that the performances were soon so popular that people were turned away and the IPF had to schedule afternoon readings, in addition to the initial evening readings. Hazo credits the popularity of the live poetry reading in the ’60s, when he founded the IPF, to the beat poets who gave public readings in San Francisco at a time marked by such occurrences as the Kennedy election. ‘When the poetry forum began, there was an audience out there in waiting,’ said Hazo. ‘It just had to have a focus, so we were fortunate.’ It wasn’t planned that way. It’s just a question of serendipity.’ Hazo also said that the poetry forum played a role in the development of Pittsburgh’s poetry performance scene, which now offers a wide selection of readings. ‘There are poetry readings now, and it’s no big deal,’ said Hazo. ‘I think that’s the way it ought to be. Poetry readings are successful when it’s regarded as no big deal.’ When choosing poets to read for the IPF, Hazo said that a poet must be published and appreciate the importance of public readings. ‘You choose the ones that take poetry readings in public seriously,’ said Hazo, ‘the ones that are good on paper and that look upon reading to an audience as a fulfillment of what writing a poem is in the first place.’ Hazo said that the best poems are impossible to forget. As expressions of the heart, he said, poems also make intimate moments memorable. ‘How many people do you know who know how to say thank you? That’s a poetic moment to be able to say thank you,’ said Hazo. It is important to create a space in public speech for poetry by reciting it aloud, Hazo said, because poetry operates on a different level from the language of information, which operates on fact. ‘Poetry should have a place in public speech,’ said Hazo. ‘Poetry is an important part of public speech. Otherwise, what are you left with? You’re left with prose, advertising, swearing, gossip and that’s about it.’