Comments on: richard hugo | making certain it goes on

By: Janice Krasselt Medin

Janice Krasselt Medin — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:21:35 +0000

Bruce Weigl mentions him frequently and I’m sure he teaches Hugo. Another friend of mine who attended his class with me also speaks of him. I love his poems but perhaps he might be remember mostly for The Triggering Town.

By: Tatiana Retivov

Tatiana Retivov — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:53:13 +0000

Thanks for posting this, I too wonder why it is that he is not being read much, though it happened rather quickly after his death, perhaps his personality was so strong that his poetry needed to be viewed through the prism of his personality. I was a student of his in the 70′s in Montana, he was a great teacher, I continue thinking about him often and rereading him. What I think about often is how he is usually called a regional or landscape poet, but to me he was also a surrealist poet.

By: ∂| Fantascienza.com Blog |uno Strano Attrattore » Blog Archive » Ci vediamo, in un italiano stentato

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:25:15 +0000

[...] dal terzo viaggio, e che io ho recuperato nella raccolta completa di tutte le poesie di Hugo Making Certain It Goes On, che prende il titolo proprio da un poema ambientato sulle rive del Big Blackfoot River – gira e [...]

By: shapeskeare

shapeskeare — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 05:34:12 +0000

It is rare to meet people who knows about Hugo, it’s even rarer to
find anyone who has read him let alone reading him. I have been lucky
enough to meet two in Korea who actually know about Hugo and read
read him. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Hugo by one of them.
However there are bound to be readers of Hugo out there since his books are
now available at Amazon. I think it was just a couple of years ago the only books
available were The Real West Marginal Way, The Triggering Town, and Making Certain It Goes On (collected poems), perhaps my memory fails me, it could have
much longer ago. I would like to write my dissertation on Hugo, but I have
no idea how to go about it as of yet.

By: Jennifer Mitchell

Jennifer Mitchell — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:14:41 +0000

I am the daughter of John Duffy Mitchell, a dear friend of Richard Hugo’s. My nephew and I were talking tonight and he invoked a line from one of Hugo’s poems — quick and yet he moves like silt, I envy dreams that see his curving silver in the weeds (from “Trout”) — and it led me to your beautiful entry here.

Love to see your words and the replies from those who also knew Richard. Here is the ending to a poem he wrote for my dad, “Point No Point” …

I know a flat and friendless north.
A poem can end there, or a man, but never
in a storm. The southbound tanker
cruises by unbudged by slamming waves.
Great bulk often wins and you and I
are fat and sipping beer and waiting
for the storm to rearrange the light,
for birds to come back named, with jokes
and for the sea to weaken, just enough
to kick back home on, never weak
as cream or flat as a summer lake.

By: norbert blei

norbert blei — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:44:29 +0000

I thank you all for these wonderful, perceptive comments and memories concerning the
Richard Hugo piece I put up last week. It does my heart good, makes it all worthwhile
as I continue to struggle with my own long, drawn-out, energy-sapping recuperation process, which occasionally allows me some precious moments to scratch out a few words concerning the continuing saga of ‘the writing life.’

Here’s to you, to Hugo, and “making certain it [all] goes on.”

–n,b.

By: Sandra McPherson

Sandra McPherson — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:34:49 +0000

Speaking of “succession,” when my Asperger’s daughter was very young and undiagnosed, she sat on Dick’s lap at our house in Portland. He was happy, saying something like “I’m James Dickey, I’m James Dickey,” because some groupies had approached him after a reading. My little girl looked up at him and said, “I can’t kiss you: you have too many chins.” Fortunately he knew our, and everybody’s, great love for him….

By: Janice Medin

Janice Medin — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:54:12 +0000

I remember Hugo well. I was a student of his right before he died. In fact, he wrote a letter of recommendation for me for grad school. I love his poetry and especially his book White Center. Of course, Triggering Town is a classic and is used today by many teachers of poetry. I was honored to have been taught by someone who was taught by Roethke–like apostolic succession.

By: Al Maginnes

Al Maginnes — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:07:16 +0000

Thank you for this. Richard Hugo died before I knew who he was, but he was and remains one of my essential poets.

By: Anita Endrezze

Anita Endrezze — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:04:52 +0000

Thank you for bringing people’s attention to Dick again. I was a grad student at EWU back in the early 70s and had the great honor of traveling around with him and Jim McAuley, Jim McCleod (Poetry Professors) and grad students Nance Van Winkel and Rich Ives. We went to small towns in Idaho and read to kids in the schools. I only had 4 or 5 poems at the time and read them over and over. Dick Hugo’s sensitivity of place impressed me enormously. He captured those small towns with his sparse and hard-bitten words. Years later, I wrote to him. I was feeling kind of isolated and not connecting with other writers. I told him I was all alone, and he responded: You’re in good company.
Praise and reassurance, all in 4 words. He was like that.