Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Poetry stamps

I just went to check whether the poet William Carlos Williams has appeared on a United States postage stamp. He hasn’t. But it turns out that the Postal Service just announced a 2012 set of stamps honoring American poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, E.E. Cummings, Robert Hayden, Denise Levertov, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Wallace Stevens, and Williams. Welcome news. The literary critic Hugh Kenner, in a documentary about Williams: “A great poet is one who makes a difference to the art of poetry. I think it’s as simple as that. And he made more difference to American poetry than anyone other than Walt Whitman.”

Related reading
Rutherford native and author of Paterson poem commemorated in stamp (Northjersey.com)

comments: 4

Adair said...

It is sad yet telling that as the Post Office goes into serious decline it releases some of its greatest stamps ever. I have been so impressed with the stamp selections of the past year, from Boy Scouts to Jazz to Richard Wright to American Designers. And now the poets in 2012!

Michael Leddy said...

I bought many sheets of the American Designer stamps, so the USPS better keep going. I don’t think it will really go under, but it’s odd indeed when such a fixture of everyday life is no longer certain.

Adair said...

I forgot to add the lovely stamp of Puerto Rico's greatest poet, Julia de Burgos. I bought a sheet of those. And I hear that a new release in 2012 will consist of various collages by Romare Bearden! What wonderful person is making these decisions? They deserve their own stamp!

Michael Leddy said...

That’s a good question. There must be some culturally astute (I almost said “hip”) design people in the USPS.