On the Level Everyday: Talks on Poetry and the Art of Living by Ted Berrigan

by Ted Berrigan

Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) is among his generation's most admired writers. In many respects, the directions followed in contemporary poetry were set out in the courses and workshops he taught at the Naropa Institute, the University of Michigan, Yale University, the City University of New York, the Stevens Institute of Technology, the University of Essex in England, Northeastern Illinois University, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and elsewhere. On the Level Everyday brings together key examples of his classroom lectures with other pieces, including two important talks delivered at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in New York. On the Level Everyday provides an introduction not only to Berrigan's poetics but also the problems of surviving as a poet in America today.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

Paperback

About the author

Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, where he received a BA in English in 1959 and fell just short of the requirements for a M.A. in 1962. Berrigan was married to Sandy Berrigan, also a poet, and they had two children, David Berrigan and Kate Berrigan. He and his second wife, the poet Alice Notley, were active in the poetry scene in Chicago for several years, then moved to New York City, where he edited various magazines and books.

A prominent figure in the second generation of the New York School of Poets, Berrigan was peer to Jim Carroll, Anselm Hollo, Alice Notley, Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, and Lewis Warsh. He collaborated with Padgett and Joe Brainard on Bean Spasms, a work significant in its rejection of traditional concepts of ownership. Though Berrigan, Padgett, and Brainard all wrote individual poems for the book, and collaborated on many others, no authors were listed for individual poems.

The poet Frank O'Hara called Berrigan's most significant publication, The Sonnets, "a fact of modern poetry." A telling reflection on the era that produced it, The Sonnets beautifully weaves together traditional elements of the Shakespearean sonnet form with the disjunctive structure and cadence of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Berrigan's own literary innovations and personal experiences.

Berrigan died on July 4, 1983 at the age of 49. The cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver brought on by hepatitis.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't read much of it in a sitting, or the joy disappears, but this is a surprisingly good book to keep around and open to random pages when I lose sense of why I'm devoting everything to writing. I don't agree with a lot of Berrigan's value judgments, but I always find inspiring moments in the book.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book by a poet, talking about the hard work of not just writing as a poet, but of living the life of one. Berrigan embraced and committed to the romantic life of a New York City poet, but knew all too well the harsh reality of his chosen career path - poverty brings with it the struggle to keep a roof over your head, to support your family, to take care of yourself and stay in good health.

His thoughts on how to maintain the divine sparkle of poetry in your poet's soul while addressing worldly needs is magical; between its covers is truth, honesty, humor, and love. Berrigan is gone but with this book, his teaching lives on for all poets.