The language of life : a festival of poets /
Bill Moyers ; James Haba, editor ; David Grubin, contributing editor ; Elizabeth Meryman-Brunner, art research.
- 1st ed.
- New York : Doubleday, 1995.
- xx, 450 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Published to coincide with the premiere of the eight-part PBS series of the same name.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [445]-450).
W.S. Merwin Claribel Alegría James A. Autry Jimmy Santiago Baca Coleman Barks Robert Bly Marilyn Chin Lucille Clifton William Stafford Victor Hernández Cruz Rita Dove Carolyn Forche Donald Hall Joy Harjo Michael S. Harper Robert Hass Garrett Kaoru Hongo Sharon Olds Jane Kenyon Stanley Kunitz Li-Young Lee Linda McCarriston Sandra McPherson David Mura Naomi Shihab Nye Adrienne Rich Galway Kinnell Gary Snyder Gerald Stern Sekou Sundiata Mary TallMountain Quincy Troupe Daisy Zamora Octavio Paz
In a series of fascinating conversations with thirty-four American poets, The Language Of Life celebrates language in its "most exalted, wrenching, delighted, and concentrated form," and its unique power to re-create the human experience: falling in love, facing death, leaving home, playing basketball, losing faith, finding God. Listening to Linda McCarriston's award-winning poems about a child trapped in a violent home, or to Jimmy Santiago Baca explaining how words changed his life in prison, or to David Mura describing his Japanese American grandfather's experience in relocation camps, or to Sekou Sundiata stitching the magic of his childhood church in Harlem to the African tradition of storytelling, or to Gary Snyder invoking the natural wonder of mountains and rivers, or to Adrienne Rich calling for honesty in human relations, all testify to the necessity and clarity of the poet's voice, and all give hope that from such a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and religious threads we might yet weave a new American fabric.'Listen,' said the storytellers of old, 'listen and you shall hear,'" explains Bill Moyers. The Language Of Life is a joyous, life-affirming invitation to listen, learn, and experience the exhilarating power of the spoken word.
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American poetry--History and criticism--Theory, etc.--20th century Poesía estadounidense --Historia y crítica --Siglo XX American poetry--Minority authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc. Minorities--Intellectual life.--United States Poets, American--Interviews.--20th century American poetry--20th century. Ethnic groups--Poetry. Minorities--Poetry. Poetry--Authorship. Poesía --Autoría