Robert Bly, first poet laureate of Minnesota, founder of the Iron Man movement, longtime antiwar spokesman during Vietnam and currently, the Iraq War, has an amazing breadth of interests and talents. I know of him because he lived for many years on a farm in Minnesota near by cabin. He later gained fame in California for his Iron Man workshops as men sought personal growth and reconciliation with distant fathers during the fading years of the human potential movement. In addition to writing poetry, essays, books, he leads workshops in European Fairytales and other storytelling events. Born in Norway, he has done extensive translations, including Peer Gynt for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
His softer depictions of memories growing up on a farm, the harsh life, the visual images (again rich imagery) is captured so well in a favorite book I review each summer, Morning Poems published by Harper Collins. To find out more about him, read some of his poems and essays on his website www.RobertBly.com. To hear a poem on the Writer's Almanac (NPR) free podcasts, go to the March 18, 2008 entry.
Bly is appearing with several poets at the Marin Poetry Festival in San Rafael, at Dominican College, Sunday May 18th 7:30 p.m. For full details go to bookclub4evr and look at our What's New section.
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