In the spring of 1965, I recall sitting on my front porch in Palo Alto, under a large walnut tree, while navigating my graduate studies. I found solace in identifying neighborhood birds; mockingbirds stood out due to their intricate songs and distinctive wing feathers that flashed white when they took flight. On one particular day, a mockingbird gracefully moved from the walnut tree to the eaves of my house. This inspired me to explore the free verse of contemporary poets, notably Denise Levertov, as I sought to capture the essence of the bird’s flight in my notebook. I described the moment:
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A mockingbird leans
from the walnut, bellies,
riffling white, accomplishes
his perch upon the eaves.
In my notes, I felt the line breaks mirrored the bird's movements, conveying the grace and precision of its flight. Writing this poem deepened my understanding of using free verse to depict movement, both in the physical world and within internal states of thought and emotion. This exploration connected me to a broader question: why write poetry? At that time, it felt like a possible response to the complex world around me.
The mid-1960s was fraught with concerns from a generation acutely aware of the looming threat of nuclear conflict, as well as the civil rights struggles playing out on television. We witnessed terrifying images of young individuals fueled by rage as they confronted Black children attempting to integrate schools, embodying the clash of American values. Concurrently, congressional efforts sought to address environmental degradation, responding to pollution and the depletion of natural resources, which were part of a larger feminist and anti-war discourse. These movements shaped our view of the world as it teetered on the brink of chaos.
Though it may seem trivial to think that writing poetry could counter such enormity, it represented a small act of resistance for me—a means to articulate the world's complexities. Over time, I recognized that I had adopted a particular masculine aesthetic in my writing, focusing on external observation for emotional expression. With my collection, Praise, I shifted toward experimenting with sentence rhythm, aiming to capture the intricacies of thought and feeling more authentically. This evolution allowed for deeper exploration in my poetic work.