Poet Philip Levine Recalls Life at the Factory

Jeffrey Brown profiles poet Philip Levine, a former auto worker who became a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

JEFFREY BROWN:  We started out talking about your life in the factories. Many years later, you have made a life as a poet. Does that surprise you?

PHILIP LEVINE:  Oh, God, yes. Oh, I mean, I’m stunned.

One of the things that made it happen was pure luck. On my 26th birthday, I met my present wife. And how many women could stay with a guy who has no prospects and wants to write poetry and stay with him now 55 years?

Sometimes, she worked, so that I can sit home and scribble. And she honors what I’m doing. And I think that is the most crucial thing, to be honored, as a poet, even if it — not by a nation, because a nation is an abstraction, but just to be honored by this person, or that person, or especially by your wife, or your brothers, or your mother, father, I mean, it’s just fantastic. It keeps you going in a way that nothing else could keep you going.

Transcript

 

via PBS Newshour 

 

Photo by Matt Valentine

 

In this portraiture series of more than 100 writers, Matt Valentine has photographed the best contemporary American poets and novelists. The collection includes more than a dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, several National Book Award winners, and a Nobel Laureate. These photos have been exhibited and published in many forums, most recently in Texas Monthly, Oprah magazine, and American Poetry Review. A book anthologizing the portraits of poets is in progress.