17 May When I Think by Robert Creeley
or even try to measure as any kind of
distance these places, all the various
people, and all the ways in which I re-
member them, so that even the skin I
touched or was myself fact of, inside,
could see through like a hole in the wall
or listen to, it must have been, to what
was going on in there, even if I was still
too dumb to know anything—When I think
of the miles and miles of roads, or meals,
of telephone wires even, or even of water
poured out in endless streams down streaks
of black sky or the dirt roads washed clean,
or myriad, salty tears and suddenly it’s spring
again, or it was—Even when I think about
all those I treated so poorly, names, places,
their waiting uselessly for me in the rain and
I never came, was never really there at all,
was moving so confusedly, so fast, so driven
like a car along some empty highway passing,
passing other cars—When I try to think of
things, of what’s happened, of what a life is
and was, my life, when I wonder what it meant,
the sad days passing, the continuing, echoing deaths,
all the painful, belligerent news, and the dog still
waiting to be fed, the closeness of you sleeping, voices,
presences, of children, of our own grown children,
the shining, bright sun, the smell of the air just now,
each physical moment, passing, passing, it’s what
it always is or ever was, just then, just there.
About the Poet
photo credit Bruce Jackson
Robert White Creeley (1926-2005) is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential American poets of the twentieth century. Most often associated with the Black Mountain School, Creeley’s work formed a bridge between the modernist poets of the early 20th century and the several generations of innovative poets and poetics that followed him.
Creeley joined the faculty at the University at Buffalo at the invitation of Charles Olson in 1967 at a time when SUNY-Buffalo’s English Department had already defined itself as a bastion for poets, writers, and critics rather than traditional academic literary scholars. Creeley furthered the UB English Department’s international reputation in co-founding the Poetics Program in 1991 with Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe, Raymond Federman, and Dennis Tedlock.
Creeley published more than sixty books of poetry, fiction, and criticism in the United States and abroad, including If I Were Writing This (New Directions, 2003); Just in Time: Poems 1984–1994 (New Directions, 2001); Life & Death (New Directions, 1998); Echoes (New Directions, 1994); Selected Poems 1945–1990 (University of California Press, 1991); Memory Gardens (Marion Boyars Publishing, 1986); Mirrors (New Directions, 1983); The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1945–1975 (University of California Press, 1982); Later (New Directions, 1979); The Finger (Black Sparrow Press, 1968); and For Love: Poems 1950–1960 (Scribner, 1962).
Creeley’s honors include the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1999, Yale University awarded Creeley its biennial Bollingen Prize in recognition of his lifetime achievement in American Poetry.
Creeley served as New York state poet laureate from 1989 to 1991 and as the Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetry and Humanities at the State University of New York, Buffalo. He was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999.
His contributions to the wider Western New York community are incalculable. Though never officially named Buffalo’s Poet Laureate, Creeley was a defining voice in the Buffalo writing community for nearly forty years. In fact, one could easily say that Just Buffalo Literary Center would not exist were it not for Robert Creeley’s poetry and his influence on this community.
This poem “When I Think” by Robert Creeley is from On Earth: Last Poems and an Essay (University of California Press, 2006).
Related Events
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- Please join the University at Buffalo Poetics Program and Just Buffalo Literary Center in celebrating the legacy of Buffalo’s beloved poet Robert Creeley (1926-2005) on the centenary of his birth on May 21st and May 22nd in Buffalo with FOR LOVE: A Centenary Symposium for Robert Creeley (1926-2005), a celebration of the life and work of Buffalo’s beloved poet Robert Creeley sponsored by the UB Poetics Program.The events in the celebration include:
Symposium Evening 1: Studies in Creeley — Performances, Editions, Artist Books, Films at the Auditorium of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222.
6 p.m.: Talks on Creeley in the arts by Jason Camlot, Alexandra Gold, & Benjamin Friedlander
moderated by Stephen Fredman.7:30 p.m.: Public Reception in the Burchfield-Penney
8:15 p.m.: Creeley on film, including works by Grayson Goga & Grace Halley, Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian, Robert Haller, & others in collaboration with Black Rock Arts.
Symposium Evening 2: “Creeley as Colleague, Collaborator, Teacher, Mentor, Poet” for a roundtable discussion with Charles Bernstein, Elizabeth Willis, Kyle Schlesinger, Aaron Lowinger, Benjamin Friedlander, Isaac Jarnot, and Joseph Conte at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 22nd at UB Anderson Gallery, 1 Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo, NY 14214.
At 7 p.m., a reception will follow.
At 8 p.m. the evening will continue with a series of community readings and reminiscences about Creeley in Buffalo sponsored by the Poetics Program in collaboration with Just Buffalo Literary Center. All the events are free and open to the public.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.
- Please join the University at Buffalo Poetics Program and Just Buffalo Literary Center in celebrating the legacy of Buffalo’s beloved poet Robert Creeley (1926-2005) on the centenary of his birth on May 21st and May 22nd in Buffalo with FOR LOVE: A Centenary Symposium for Robert Creeley (1926-2005), a celebration of the life and work of Buffalo’s beloved poet Robert Creeley sponsored by the UB Poetics Program.The events in the celebration include: