Former Poet Laureate and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky has long dreamed of making poetry easily accessible to persons in all walks of life. He came closer to reaching his goal with the distribution of &2Six American Poets, &1an anthology that will be made available free to hospitals, hotels, airlines and other public places.
A number of sponsors are supporting the project. The book, published by Random House, is an anthology of works by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams.
Project sponsors to date include Club Med, the U.S. Air Clubs and Doubletree Inns. Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., will be one of the first recipients, with 600 donated copies. The Book-of-the-Month Club is making available a softcover edition of the anthology.
Mr. Brodsky, who served in his post at the Library in 1991-92, was encouraged to pursue his project by Andrew Carroll, author of &2Volunteers USA &1(Ballantine, 1991). Mr. Carroll is coordinator of the American Poetry and Literacy Project. &2Six American Poets &1is a 281-page book, edited by Joel Conarroe, and includes commentaries on the lives of the poets and several representative works by each.
A reading in celebration of the project was held May 12 at the Library. Joseph Brodsky read poems by Robert Frost, works he said "belong in our bloodstream."
Former senator Eugene McCarthy spoke of how he used poetry in his speeches on the campaign trail.
One of the most beautiful readings came from Carlethia Willis, a student of Literacy Volunteers of America. Ms. Willis, who at one time was unable to read, delivered a moving reading of poems of William Carlos Williams.
Former Vermont governor and current Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine Kunin read from Emily Dickinson and said she hoped that one day "I will see Ms. Wills reading from her own poems. We need poetry to reflect upon our lives and as a means to communicate with each other; to stand back from the day-to-day pressures, pause and get back in the fray."
Reading from Walt Whitman was the Rev. Wallace Charles Smith of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington. Barbara Reynolds, a columnist for &2USA Today, &1read poetry of Langston Hughes. "I enjoy reading poetry whose subject is the African-American living in today's society," she said.
That same day, Mr. Brodsky and Mr. Carroll were guests on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." "Americans simply don't realize they have the greatest poetry. ... It's a very populist country," Mr. Brodsky said.
Mr. Carroll was a senior at Columbia University when he heard about Mr. Brodsky's idea. He said he got behind the project because "I thought this is just one of the greatest ideas I had ever heard."
