What makes a poem great? Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams offers an easy answer: “It should sound as if it was improvised.” Williams read his work to students, faculty and community members in McCrary Theatre Tuesday night for the 9th annual Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture hosted by Elon University.
The dozen poems in his Sept. 22 presentation, “Poems Old and New,” delved into issues of love, revenge, death, knowledge, and even characters in famous literary works. From “Yours” as the first reading, to a new work publicly read for the first time titled “Jew on Bridge,” based on a character in the novel Crime and Punishment Russian author Feodor Dostoyevsky, Williams probed the depth of human experience in his delivery.
The audience had an opportunity to ask the acclaimed American poet about the inspiration for his work, and the process he uses for his writing, during a questions-and-answer period following the readings.
“Mostly poetry happens in your mind and in your voice,” he said in response to one question. “It really doesn’t matter how you do it. Some people use typewriters or computers and others still use longhand.”
Other audience members also sought advice and observations on poetry.
“There’s a place for brevity and expansiveness, even by the same poet and in the same novels,” he told a student who asked about the length of poems, and whether brevity may be a more effective delivery. Williams then addressed his revision process: “It’s very important not to start editing or revising something while you’re still writing it.”
Williams has authored 10 books of poetry, including Collected Poems (2006). The Singing won the National Book Award for 2003, and a previous book, Repair, was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
His collection Flesh and Blood received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Williams has also published a memoir, Misgivings: My Mother, My Father, Myself, in 2000, and he has published translations of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, Euripides’ Bacchae, and poems of Francis Ponge, among others.
A book of essays, Poetry and Consciousness, appeared in 1998. Recently he was awarded the Twentieth Annual Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, an honor given to an American poet in recognition of extraordinary accomplishment.
The evening reading was part of the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture Series, which brings award recipients to campus each year. Guests in past years have included David McCullough, George Will, Anna Quindlen, Thomas Friedman and David Halberstam. Williams was the first poet to visit for the lecture.
The Pulitzer Prizes, awarded each year since 1917, are the nation’s most prestigious awards in journalism and the liberal arts.
The series was made possible in 2001 with an endowed gift from James H. and Jane M. Baird of Burlington, N.C., who were the first presidents of the Elon Parents Council. Their son, Macon, is a 1987 Elon graduate and their son-in-law, Michael Hill, earned his Elon degree in 1989.