[New-Poetry] Hugo & triggering towns

[David Graham]

If the testimony of several generations of students is any  
indication, Hugo was not just a good teacher, but one of those rare  
presences who routinely changed lives.  His essays about teaching and  
writing in *The Triggering Town* are some of the best things I've  
seen, and they certainly changed my life, even though I never studied  
under Hugo.

In his essays Hugo managed to unite an appealing playfulness and  
irreverence about the process with utter seriousness about the art.   
He also offered solid nuts-and-bolts advice about craft without being  
too doctrinaire or prescriptive, something many powerful teachers  
cannot manage.

"Writing Off the Subject" and the title essay of *The Triggering  
Town* can be read here:

http://ualr.edu/rmburns/RB/hugosubj.html
http://ualr.edu/rmburns/RB/hugotrig.html

It's sad that Hugo's reputation as a poet seems to have faded a lot  
since he left the scene.  His own poems remain stranger and more  
twisty than their reputation in some quarters would suggest.  He  
reminds me of Frost in that regard.

The Freaks at Spurgin Road Field

The dim boy claps because the others clap.
The polite word, handicapped, is muttered in the stands.
Isn't it wrong, the way the mind moves back.

One whole day I sit, contrite, dirt, L.A.
Union Station, '46, sweating through last night.
The dim boy claps because the others clap.

Score, 5 to 3. Pitcher fading badly in the heat.
Isn't it wrong to be or not be spastic?
Isn't it wrong, the way the mind moves back.

I'm laughing at a neighbor girl beaten to scream
by a savage father and I'm ashamed to look.
The dim boy claps because the others clap.

The score is always close, the rally always short.
I've left more wreckage than a quake.
Isn't it wrong, the way the mind moves back.

The afflicted never cheer in unison.
Isn't it wrong, the way the mind moves back
to stammering pastures where the picnic should have worked.
The dim boy claps because the others clap.

--Richard Hugo

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David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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