An 'energy' lift

“Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.” – Marilyn Hacker

American poet, translator and critic Hacker, born on this date in 1942, won the National Book Award for Presentation Piece, and also is the author of Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons, and Going Back to the River.   In 2013 she was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for her translation work on the Moroccan poet Rachida Madani.

“The pleasure that I take in writing gets me interested in writing a poem,” she said. “It’s not a statement about what I think anyone else should be doing.  For me, it’s an interesting tension between interior and exterior.”

A retired writing professor (at City College of New York), 

she is a native of New York City and continues to make 

her home there and in Paris while also continuing to write 

her own poetry.  She said poetry provides an outlet of 

expression that she hasn’t found in other ways.

“Each poem is fixed in a moment,” she said about her writing style.  “All those moments written or read together take on the movement and architecture of a narrative.”

To see some of Marilyn Hacker’s poetry check out this link: http://www.poemhunter.com/marilyn-hacker/poems/

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