OUTSTANDING EVENING OF POETRY FEATURES TWO OF THE WORLD’S MOST DISTINGUISHED LIVING POETS WITH ONE SHARED LOVE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Santa Rosa, CA (October 9, 2007) – Two of the world’s most distinguished living poets, one receiving critical acclaim for his first book of poems in 10 years and the other celebrating his 80th birthday, will take the stage November 6 at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The program, entitled “On Land & Language,” features former U.S. poet laureates and passionate environmentalists Robert Hass and W.S. Merwin. Together they will present an amazing evening of poetry centered on their shared love for language and the natural world.

Robert Hass’s work is grounded in the beauty of the physical world – the smaller details of natural, human life.  His poetry is graceful, humble, curious, and wise. ‘It has always been Mr. Hass’s aim to get the whole man, head and heart and hands and everything else, into his poetry,” said The New York Times Book Review. With work such as this, every new book by Robert Hass is a major event and his latest beautiful collection is no exception. Entitled Time & Materials, Hass’s first book in 10 years may be his best in 30. The new poems show a rare internal variety, even as they reflect Hass’s constant concerns. One is human impact on the planet at the century's end, told through a nine-part verse-essay addressed to the ancient Roman poet Lucretius. It sums up evolution, deplores global warming, and says that the earth needs a dream of restoration in which…”She dances and the birds just keep arriving.”

Renowned poet W.S. Merwin is celebrating his 80th birthday and a career spanning five decades. A poet laureate, translator, and environmental activist, Merwin is one of the most widely read — and imitated — poets in America. "The intentions of Merwin's poetry are as broad as the biosphere yet as intimate as a whisper,” said The Atlantic Monthly. “He conveys in the sweet simplicity of grounded language a sense of the self where it belongs, floating between heaven, earth, and the underground." Merwin’s book of poems The Carrier of Ladders was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. His more recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from his deeply held beliefs. He is not only profoundly anti-imperialist, pacifist, and environmentalist, but also possessed by an intimate feeling for landscape and language and the ways in which land and language interflow. His latest poems are densely imagistic and full of an intimate awareness of the natural world. His book Migration: Selected Poems 1951 – 2001 was chosen as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and won the 2005 National Book Award for Poetry.

On Land & Language: An Evening of Poetry with Robert Hass & W.S. Merwin, November 6 at 8pm, is the first presentation in the 2007-2008 Copperfield’s Books Speakers Series at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. Tickets ($10, $25, $35) for are available at the Box Office located at 50 Mark West Springs Road in Santa Rosa, by phone at 707-546-3600, or online at www.wellsfargocenterart.org.

 

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The non-profit Wells Fargo Center for the Arts is the North Bay's premier arts organization presenting world-class performances, contemporary sculpture, festivals, and events to 500,000 residents and visitors each year. Together with its resident companies, the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts provides more than 100 annual performances, serves to present intriguing contemporary art, and is one of California's largest providers of arts education programs for children. Located in the heart of the Wine Country, the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts campus features spacious auditoriums, an intimate cabaret, and outdoor festival grounds with a big-top tent. Unlike many similar organizations, the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts is not aligned with any federal, state, or municipal entity-such as a city or university. The Center was created by and is supported by the community it serves, making it uniquely positioned as an independent, entrepreneurial-focused, non-profit arts organization. We serve to Enrich, Educate and Entertain - Connecting Our Community through the Arts.