Poetry reading with Miriam Levine during Annual Week of Poetry

By Sarah Daponde

Asst. Arts & Features Editor

The English Department kicked off the annual Alan Feldman Week of Poetry by hosting a conversation with poet and Professor Emeritus Miram Levine on Oct. 21 in the Heineman Ecumenical Center. 

Levine read both published and unpublished poems, one of which contained language that Levine admitted might be offensive.

Lisa Eck, chair of the English Department, introduced the event, which she called the “keynote” event of the Week of Poetry.

Alan Feldman himself was in attendance for the reading.

“This is an especially auspicious year with the Alan Feldman Week of Poetry because Alan himself was able to join us and is right here before your eyes,” said Eck.

Eck said Feldman was a professor at Framingham State for 36 years and also acted as the chair of the English Department.

Helen Heineman, president emerita of Framingham State, former chair of the English Department, published author, and whom the Ecumenical Center was named after, was also in attendance.

Eck said it was an honor to have them back at Framingham State.

Levine taught at Framingham State as an English professor and acted as chair of the English Department, as well as coordinator of the Arts & Humanities Program. She retired in December 2003.

“It was marvelous and uplifting to be back here at Framingham State, where I taught for many years,” said Levine. She said she enjoyed attending English Professor Sam Witt’s class and hearing his students’ poetry.

Eck said Levine’s works include the memoir, “Devotion,” the novel, “In Paterson,” and her sixth collection of poetry, which she read from at the event, titled “Forget About Sleep.”

Levine is a member of the National Education Association (NEA), a grantee of the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, and a recipient of a Pushcart Prize, said Eck. Her third collection of poetry, “The Dark Opens,” was awarded the 2007 Autumn House Poetry Prize.

Copies of Levine’s books were supposed to be available to be signed by Levine at the event, but although the campus bookstore confirmed the order, the books were not able to be delivered, Eck said.

Eck introduced Patricia Horvath, English professor and published author, who conducted the conversation with Levine in an interview format she called the “author’s conversation.”

Horvath began the conversation with Levine by asking about how she recalls memories for her memoirs and poetry, and how her childhood influences her writing.

“I was struck by how rich your work is with childhood recollections. Some images from ‘Devotion’ I love for the way they bring a poet’s sensibility to prose,” added Horvath.

Onyx Lovely / THE GATEPOST

Levine said a lot of her memoirs and poetry are influenced by real memories, and also by stories she has made up. She said writing requires “remembering” and “imagining” at the same time. She said imagining things is different from lying - it heightens and amps up her writing.

Levine said she hopes for moments when a memory she did not know she had catches her by surprise. “A particular detail - the church candles, the skin of my aunt - that is a germ that occurs and then it leads to perhaps an imaginative flaunt,” added Levine.

Horvath said, “The idea of not realizing that something resonates, and then decades later remembering is so provocative. The work is so richly synesthetic.”

Horvath asked Levine if she could see the “shape” of a piece she was writing before it was finished. Levine said her memoir was not a straightforward narrative, but more of a mosaic.

“It was very, very freeing to look at it in pieces. I think the Italian word for that is ‘tessera.’ That’s the plural for those little bright pieces that occur in a mosaic,” added Levine.

Levine does not usually have a clear idea how a poem will turn out until she has finished writing it. “Once I have the first line, then I can go,” she added.

Levine said she remembered learning how to make an outline for writing pieces in school, but that she does not use any kind of outline when writing poems.

She quoted Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet, who discussed the point in a poem where it becomes “unstable,” which Levine said refers to the place in a poem where she does not know exactly where she is going with it.

“If you’ve got the blank page in front of you and you’re getting into material that makes you sweat … maybe you decide, ‘Oh, I’m not going to write that’ and maybe you decide, ‘Maybe I’m going to write that,’” she added.

Horvath then directed the conversation toward the floral imagery Levine uses in much of her writing. “You’re using flowers - which sometimes we think of as decorative and celebratory - to evoke the mortal,” she added, in reference to a poem from “Devotions.”

Levine said flowers “speak” to her, and referenced a poem she wrote about comparing flowers to her childhood dolls.

“They have color. They have scent. They have presence. They have extraordinary beauty,” Levine added.

A student asked Levine about the abundance of bird imagery in her poetry, and Levine said it was intentional. She said observing birds is an interest of hers, but she is still learning how to “have a good eye” for them.

Horvath’s last question was about how Levine takes influence from others’ works. “You gave a talk recently on the pleasure, usefulness, and downside of copying the works of others, … so I was hoping that you could speak briefly on this idea of influence,” she said.

Everyone copies the works of others, even if they do not admit it, said Levine. When she was younger, she felt the burden of needing to be special, unusual, and even genius.

She said when reading the works of others, especially works that she loves, she hears the voices of the dead, as if the person who wrote it was there with her. Paying homage to other writers allows her to forget herself and feel connected to them.

“So, it’s been absolutely marvelous to imitate, … and when I do it, I feel that I am one among many,” added Levine.

Levine said if the audience should leave remembering any dead poet, they should start with the French poet, Louise Gluck, the English poet, John Clare, or the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. “Just start reading. … They’re dying all over the place.”

After the conversation with Horvath, Levine read 14 of her own poems. She called the first eight “love poems.”

“Two of the great subjects of poetry are love and death,” she added.

The poems Levine read aloud included, “June of Roses,” “The Charioteer of Sicily,” “Union Street,” and “Waking Up the Morning After Watching Eisenstein’s Film, Ivan the Terrible.” She also read several poems about fall, including “November.”

The next poem, “Zing,” was unpublished and previously unread by the Framingham State faculty.

The poem contained several racial slurs, which Levine read aloud, including words that offensively described Jewish people, Irish people, and Black people. Levine said she was quoting “rap lyrics.”

A student asked her why she felt comfortable reading the slurs, and Levine said she did not feel comfortable. “It’s very risky for me to use that. Really risky. And I understand it could be offensive,” she said.

In response to “Zing,” Eck said, in a statement, the English Department acknowledges the racial slurs used by Levine as offensive and hurtful to many students and faculty.

She said, “While the English Department did not select this poem, which came from the poet's unpublished work, we recognize the negative experience students had hearing it spoken in an academic space.

“We want to reassure students that spaces all around campus - from English classes to public performances hosted by the English Department, will be safe spaces for them to learn, and most importantly, be seen and heard,” she said.