My Lost Poets: A Life in Poetry

by Philip Levine

Essays, speeches, and journal entries from one of our most admired and best-loved poets that illuminate how he came to understand himself as a poet, the events and people that he wrote about, and the older poets who influenced him. In prose both as superbly rendered as his poetry and as down-to-earth and easy as speaking, Levine reveals the things that made him the poet he became. In the title essay, originally the final speech of his poet laureate year, he recounts how as a boy he composed little speeches walking in the night woods near his house and how he later realized these were his first poems. He wittily takes on the poets he studied with in the Iowa Writing John Berryman, who was his great teacher and lifelong friend, and Robert Lowell, who was neither. His deepest influences--jazz, Spain, the working people of Detroit--are reflected in many of the pieces. There are essays on Spanish poets he admires, William Carlos Williams, Wordsworth, Keats, and others. A wonderful, moving collection of writings that add to our knowledge and appreciation of Philip Levine--both the man and the poet.

Genres: Poetry, Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir, Criticism

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 8, 2016

About the author

Philip Levine (b. January 10, 1928, Detroit, Michigan. d. February 14, 2015, Fresno, California) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit.

He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012.

Philip Levine grew up in industrial Detroit, the second of three sons and the first of identical twins of Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Harry Levine owned a used auto parts business, his mother Esther Priscol (Prisckulnick) Levine was a bookseller. When Levine was five years old, his father died. Growing up, he faced the anti-Semitism embodied by the pro-Hitler radio priest Father Coughlin.

Levine started to work in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. He graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1946 and went to college at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where he began to write poetry, encouraged by his mother, to whom he later dedicated the book of poems The Mercy. Levine got his A.B. in 1950 and went to work for Chevrolet and Cadillac in what he calls "stupid jobs". He married his first wife Patty Kanterman in 1951. The marriage lasted until 1953. In 1953 he went to the University of Iowa without registering, studying among others with poets Robert Lowell and John Berryman, the latter of which Levine called his "one great mentor". In 1954 he graduated with a mail-order masters degree with a thesis on John Keats' "Ode to Indolence", and married actress Frances J. Artley. He returned to the University of Iowa teaching technical writing, completing his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1957. The same year, he was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University. In 1958 he joined the English Department at California State University in Fresno, where he taught until his retirement in 1992. He has also taught at many other universities, among them New York University as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, at Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Tufts, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting collection of idiosyncratic essays about his personal history with developing into a poet and his experience with other poets. Many of the other poets I heard read while they were alive. Also a long essay about Spain and the civil war. In addition the book is very clear about his political point of view and how he arrived at it. He was a native of Detroit. The collection was put together by Edward Hirsch another poet whom I have heard lecture and with whom I was privileged to spend some time. In other words Levine's and my personal histories overlapped sufficiently that I really felt a connection with him

[Tad Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays and lectures capture everything that is wonderful about Philip Levine -- his humanity, his empathy, his earthiness, his eyes and his ears, his insights. Along with the stories about Detroit, about jazz, about history and poetry and poets, there are snippets of poems, or whole poems, from poets celebrated and obscure, and in between.
I'm better for having read it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really struck by Levine's discussions of how his perceptions of both contemporary and historical poets and their works changed over time, specifically John Berryman, John Keats and William Wordsworth. I'm glad I don't think that I have to like a person to appreciate their art.

[Zelda Godsey-Kellogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book as a reference guide to a paper I was writing about Philip Levine, but man did it turn out to be something else. Levine talks constantly about poets and their “masters”. I’ve had a few in my life but none have come close to Levine’s influence on me. I want to dedicate my life to him now, as corny as it sounds! Not only did this book make me reflect on poetry and it’s conception, but also on the-self-as-poet. Levine made me genuinely questions my morals as a writer. Am I doing this for the right reasons? I don’t know. I truly don’t know. But, I can aspire to. And maybe that’s good enough, to give it my all?

[Paul Wilner · Rating 5 out of 5]

My notice, for the San Francisco Chronicle, of this wonderful book.

www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Last...

[Owain Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute joy. If you're a fan of Levine you'll love this. With the essays and lectures gathered here Levine charts his development as a poet through the people, voices and events that influenced him the most, but it's also a fascinating scan of American poetry throughout the latter two thirds of the 20th century. Levine is as generous here as he is in his poems, giving us access, in his open and friendly style, to meetings with such luminaries as Tom Gunn (charming and personable), John Asberry (charming early on but jealous and bitter in the later encounters), George Hitchcock (legendary editor of Kyak magazine and all round good egg) and Roberta Spears (a former Student of Levine's whose work he champions in a stand alone essay). Levine's wealth of poetry knowledge is extensive and international in outlook and there's so much I have learned from reading these essays, so many avenues to further explore. I guess this is what made him not just a great poet but also, according to many of his former students, a great teacher too. This is one of those book I'll keep going back too. A true treasure trove.

[Carl Waluconis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This welcome collection of Philip Levine's talks and essays was published after the great poet's death. He describes the many roles of poetry in his life and in the world. This includes his first creations of poetry when he didn't know what poetry was, but found himself alone talking out loud to the moon. There are fantastic anecdotes from the lives of poets that he sought out or encountered. In his prose, his tone finds the same tone as that of his poetry. Writing voice is writing voice. He includes many insights into what poetry is and what it does. He quotes Lorca's definition, “the unending baptism of newly created things". He includes many poets not well known at all, but makes them memorable, being a part of " my brothers and sisters in madness and glory who shared with me their faith in the power of the perfect words, the words we knew as children and then forgot?"

[Stephen Kowalkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

“How he guessed I was from Detroit, I don’t know, but he did, and he was curious to know when I’d left and why I’d come back. When I told him I was here to celebrate the retirement of my old teacher, he rocked back and forth a moment and said, ‘That’s beautiful, that is biblical.’ There are those rare times in my life when I know that what I’m living is in a poem I’ve still to write.”

Levine describes here the encounter that led to his poem A Walk with Tom Jefferson.

“After he catalogued the disappearance of all but the seven houses that remained on the block, for want of something better to say, I remarked, ‘Nothing lasts forever.” He turned his weathered face to me and amended my judgment: ‘Nothing lasts.’ If you grew up in Detroit when Tom and I grew up, that could easily become the mantra for your city and your life: ‘Nothing lasts.’”

[Mark Wigert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Levine’s My Lost Poets: A Life in Poetry is an excellent collection of lectures, essays, and remembrances. Levine speaks and writes of the poets and other individuals who enriched his life with their poetry, music and humanity as he developed into a poet and established his own voice. Levine’s prose writing is engaging, descriptive, and compelling. Don’t concern yourself with being interested in poetry, these writings are well worth the interesting and informative insights that Levine has into people that embrace us, encourage us, and inspire us.

[Kris Dersch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really afraid when I started this that it was going to make me feel dumb. I really enjoy reading poetry for fun but am not well read in classic poets or a poetry expert. I'm happy to say that didn't happen. This went through a lot of poetry and poets and didn't leave me behind in doing so.
It's a compilation of several essays and lectures from this author so some were better and hit more hardly than others, but it was a delight to spend time with this book.

[Melanie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

If you care about how poetry intersects with the working class of Detroit and/or Fresno, this book is for you. I admit it's niche, but if it's your niche, Levine's words will get your heart to beating to the rhythm of this life.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the first essays in this book - great conversational and intelligent tone. Levine is confident but also has a self-deprecating humor that is very endearing. The later essays were less interesting to me, maybe because they became less personal.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I really loved this little book. The poet reminisces about poems and poets he has known and read. He tells us what he thinks good poetry sounds like and reads like. He is tight, thoughtful, funny, and honest. All good things.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A posthumous collection of essays, lectures, and other prose by the former Poet Laureate of the United States, Philip Levine (1928-2015).

Book Review: My Lost Poets is wide-ranging, fun, and thoughtful. Just like Philip Levine himself. What I most enjoyed about this collection was learning more about Levine the person, not just the persona presented in his poetry. This Philip Levine loves jazz, I mean really loves jazz. He is an ardent but humble proponent of the working class, which we knew, but see him here as a person of beliefs, not simply as a poet. He remembers Detroit, the Spanish Civil War, many, many poets. He's open about his own flaws and limitation as a teacher and reader of poetry; there's no big head here. Self-deprecating and funny. Give him a book of Keats and he's a happy man. That's what I liked best, but what was most valuable is how on every other page Levine refers the reader to a poem, a poet, a place that needs to be found, read, understood. He includes whole poems, his own and others', and his analysis. He tells where he began, about his influences and those he influenced. In My Lost Poets Levine gives you an extensive reading list that'll open your eyes and make you think differently than before. The section on John Berryman was irresistible, and his honest but gentle assessments of other poets, both unknown and celebrated, is profound. This short book can help make the reader a better reader, poet, and person. [4½★]

[Paul Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given as a gift because the giver knew I wanted to explore poetry and poets and knew I know so little. The book did not disappoint. It is the work of a poet and a teacher. While much remains beyond my scope to grasp, it offers a way forward, inviting me to see poets and their words not as some great mystery to resolve currently beyond my comprehension but as thought and feeling and story and a way, not the only way, but as a way to experience the world.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every poet has a story. Behind every poem is a thought, idea, memory, or vision. History though removes the poet from him or herself sometimes separating the words from the mind that created them.
This book provides a link between the poet and his poems in his own words giving the reader an insight into the evolution of Levine as a poet and as a person.
Highly recommended.

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2016 posthumous collection of writings by this great poet is a pleasure
to read. A couple of the pieces are speeches he gave, others are journal
entries and short remembrances. He writes of his life long friendship
with his mentor, John Berryman as well as his love of Spanish poets,
Wordsworth, Keats' letters and the working people of Detroit. Enjoyable.

[Lianne]

Saw this title on the best seller list earlier this year. I had the good fortune to attend a reading by Philip Levine in Fresno about ten years ago when I was living in he Central Valley of California. Levine is famous for mentoring a group of Fresno poets while he taught at Fresno State. He was our national poet laureate in 2011. This book is a series of memoir essays and ruminations about his experience as a poet, from the earliest years in Detroit. He is known as a "working man's poet" especially for his works about the auto industry assembly line. Of the generation that can be said to be "beat," he was also a great aficionado of jazz. His reminiscences of jazz clubs in Detroit in the late 40's and early 50's is wonderfully evocative. I wish I'd been there. In each essay he captures moments when someone's work or talent caught his attention. He was a witness and participant in a particular time in American culture that has now become a relevant and identifiable part of our history. His human qualities shine through.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intimate and illuminating both. I learned a lot about Philip Levine's contemporaries and his influences.