Progressive Wednesday

Doing Work for Hard-Working Families: Listen

Listen:

We'd like to recommend checking out the poem “What Work Is,– written by the wonderfully grizzled and occasionally gritty poet Philip Levine. This masterful piece of his oozes empathy, crackles with the meaning of labor, and stresses the importance of art and goals. By the last line, Levine turns the poem around on himself with a deft hand and control of simple, accessible language.

About a decade ago, I became aware of Levine's work through my one of my writing mentors, Kathy Fagan, a former student of Levine. Starting seven decades before that, Levine grew up in Detroit, attended at Wayne State University during the nights, and sweated during the days in one of the Motor City's auto plants. He's the author of sixteen (count – ˜em, sixteen!) books of poems. Amongst other prizes, he’s received a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

I highly recommend listening to Levine read the piece by clicking the link below. Consider it an appetizer for this Wednesday. Consider it some calisthenics for this Wednesday. Consider it the essence of this Wednesday captured in 288 words.

http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/audio/levine/what_work_is.mp3

You can read along by clicking this sentence. You can snag yourself a copy of the book by clicking this sentence.