CHARLES SIMIC
“There’s no preparation for poetry. Four years of grave digging with a nice volume of poetry or a book of philosophy in one’s pocket would serve as well as any university,” says the late poet, translator, and essayist Charles Simic. A Pulitzer winner and U.S. poet laureate, Simic died earlier this month at age 84 and leaves a rich, lengthy oeuvre steeped in the art of verse and craft of writing that takes life experience as its starting point.
Born in Belgrade, Simic was profoundly impacted by World War II as a child and immigrated to Chicago from Yugoslavia to escape the horrors of the conflict. This formative time tends to appear in his poetry, and he was known for perceiving the extraordinary in the mundane, often writing surreal and astute works that confront difficulty, violence, and despair with frank honesty.
A POET’S TASTE
In addition to his passion for language and metaphor, Simic was an ardent lover of food, wine, and the pleasures of dining. He wrote in a 1992 essay: “Sadness and good food are incompatible… If I were to write about the happiest days of my life, many of them would have to do with food and wine and a table full of friends.”
THINK ABOUT
Like many writers and artists, Simic has thoughts on New York and the loss of “the esoteric circles, the people interested in Eastern religions, the occult and so forth—When I write about the city, I often think back to the basement of the Weiser Bookstore, where I spent so much time.”
Simic also was attracted to invention, saying “I like, for example, Emily Dickinson and other poets who were really just wonderful liars. Who knew how to make up something delicious.” He also includes Dickinson in a list of influences, which spans from Walt Whitman, Williams Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens to Vasko Popa and Pablo Neruda.
LEARN MORE
Tune in to the Poetry Foundation’s podcast for a brief audio introduction to Simic’s life and work.
Those just beginning to delve into his works should begin with The Voice at 3 A.M., a more recent collection that surveys two decades of his poetry.
