|
Len
Roberts was the author of nine books of poetry, including Counting the
Black Angels, The Trouble- Making Finch, Black Wings, and Sweet Ones.
Individual poems have appeared in Boulevard, Partisan Review, POETRY,
Quarterly West, American Poetry Review and many other prestigious
publications.
Len Roberts held a Ph.D. from
Lehigh University. He was a professor of English at Northampton Community
College in Bethlehem, PA. and a visiting professor at the University of
Pittsburgh's Writing Project.
Hayden Carruth has said of his
work, "When I read Len Roberts I feel my heart being broken and put
back together again."
C.K. Williams has said, "There is always
in Roberts's poems a gentle sensibility, a probing intelligence and an
acute attentiveness to what is urgent in our lives."
The late Allen
Ginsberg characterized his poetry as "grounded in native, humane, and
objective perceptions."
Roberts started writing poetry at 28 as a way to cope with his father's
death. A year later, he read some of those poems at Lafayette
College in Easton, PA.
Allen Ginsberg heard him read and liked his work so
much that he got Robert's manuscript to Bill Mohr, a Beat Generation
poetry editor, who published Roberts' first book, "Cohoes
Theater," in 1981.
Roberts was not only a prolific and widely published poet, but he
continually taught the elements of poetry to both teachers of writing and
even very young students, characterizing that as one of the best things he
does.
His voice will be missed
but never forgotten.
|
