I was 18 years old when I first read Dylan Thomas, I remember the poem it was called 24 years and it was about turning 24 and having thoughts of dying and being reborn, thoughts that were not natural to me but suddenly I had them and began writing terrible poems about how old I was at 18 But in the long run I learned an enormous amount from him, how he handled the language, how much excitement you could actually get into the poem. I'd like to read a today a poem, one his best-known poems- in which he tells us exactly why he writes. Or why he wrote. It's called "In my Craft or Sullen Art"

In My Craft or Sullen Art

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labor by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.

For more from WNYC's Poet in Residence, click here.

Poetry Links

www.frankohara.com
A really fun Frank O'Hara fan site
Theodore Roethke
from Poetry Exhibits
William Matthews LINKS
from Poets.org
Mingus at the Half Note is in a WIlliams' Collection, Time & Money: New Poems (1995)
Read an interview with William Matthews from the Atlantic Monthly
The Alun Lewis Page
For information on Alun Lewis
War Poetry
Alun Lewis' War Poems
Alfred A Knopf on Philip Levine
Information on many of Levine's books
Galway Kinnell Reads Walt Whitman
Kinnell reads Whitman's "To The States" and comments on it
Philip Levine on the Internet Poetry Archive.
Read Levine's poetry and listen to Levine read his poetry
The Leonard Lopate Show: Poetry Magazine
Hear Mr. Lopate talk about the 100 million-dollar donation from Ruth Lilly to Poetry Magazine
The Next Big Thing: Poetry Lives
Alice Quinn, poetry editor for the New Yorker and executive director of the Poetry Society of America, sorts through some entries to the Poetry in Motion Contest
e-poets Network Book of Voices
a list of poets and poems from the Chicago area-- you can listen to poets read their work
The Poetry Project
is at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, since 1966
Bartleby.com
A collection of books online, including a bounty of verse
An Audible Anthology
A collection of poems printed in the Atlantic Montly to read or listen to
Gumball Poetry
It's a zine, it's a website, it's a gumball machine that dispenses poetry!

A selection of Philip Levine's books

A New Selected Poems
Available for purchase at Amazon.com
The Simple Truth
Available for purchase at Amazon.com
The Mercy
Available for purchase at Amazon.com
What Work Is: Poems
Available for purchase at Amazon.com