Richard Wilbur

Tonight we had four people at our event at the Barnes & Noble bookseller on Tittabawassee Road in Saginaw, Michigan. Phyllis and her husband Bob were there, as was Tim and myself. We read several poems by Richard Wilbur. Phyllis and Bob brought six anthologies with them. At one point or another, Phyllis has taught from each of these anthologies at Saginaw Valley State University. We found several anthologies for sale that include poems by Richard Wilbur.

I noticed in Harold Bloom's anthology The Best Poems of the English Language, there are no Richard Wilbur poems. But in Wilbur's Collected Poems 1943 - 2004, Bloom is quoted in a blurb: "It is a consolation to read through sixty years of Richard Wilbur's poetry. He should be read in the company of . . . Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens." Interesting!

The general consensus among the four of us tonight was that the group was too small to have a group picture. We signed a birthday card to send to Richard Wilbur. I looked at the website http://www.poets.org/ to see if I could find his mailing address. There I learned that Mr. Wilbur lives in Cummington, MA. I Googled Cummington, MA and found the website http://www.cummington-ma.gov/ which has Cummington's White Pages, among other things. He and his wife Charlee are listed there. I'll put our card to him in the mail tomorrow morning on my way to work. With the card we included the Barnes & Noble store flier which has in it an announcement for our Richard Wilbur event at the store.

Life is beautiful and so can you!

-- "It is our goal to appreciate and improve our talents, to share our own work and to communicate the joys of poetry with others. Everyone's poetry is valued."

River Junction Poets Mission Statement