FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Submitted by Court Booth & Molly Eberle

Contact: Nancy Grohol, Executive Director
Thoreau Farm Trust
978.369.3091
978.369.1515 (fax)
nancy@thoreaufarm.org
www.thoreaufarm.org

Thoreau Farm Trusts Hosts Robert Pinsky in Concord

June 18, 2007

Concord, MA—The Thoreau Farm Trust’s ambitious effort to save and restore the Thoreau birthplace received a major boost with a visit and presentation by poet Robert Pinsky. Thrice named the U.S. Poet Laureate, Pinsky, who serves as honorary chair of the Trust’s campaign to preserve the birthplace, spoke to an admiring audience at Concord Academy on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Addressing a packed-to-the balcony audience in the Concord Academy chapel, Pinsky held a master class, captivating the crowd with his dexterous combination of humor, insight and honesty.

Pinsky introduced himself as the great, great, great grandson of Henry David Thoreau. “A typical American is made of wisps and bits from here and there,” he said. “If I want to have a right to the patriotic feeling of calling myself an ‘ancestor’ – of Thoreau, of Dante – then I have to take care of our history. On this project, you’ve got it right.”

Referring to the passage of time and the different events that permitted Concord’s government and volunteers to save the property and house on Virginia road, Pinsky noted, “the ability to improvise, to patch something together out of bits and pieces, is something I admire about the New England spirit.”

He quoted from Thoreau’s poem, Sic Vita, which begins,

I am a parcel of vain strivings tied
By a chance bond together,
Dangling this way and that, their links
Were made so loose and wide,
Methinks,
For milder weather.

From First Things to Hand he read “Book,” “Jar of Pens,” and “Other Hand,” and claimed, “Everything is a portal into the rest of the world.” Then, by way of proof, he examined the pulpit in which he was standing and did a quick riff on the oak wood, religion, what a jack-in-the-pulpit flower looks like, nature, the carvings, “English-looking incisions,” and other words and images and references that could be conjured up by studying the oak construction.

At the urging of the audience, he read his famous poem, ”Shirt,” and from his collection Jersey Rain he read “Samurai Song” and “ABC” - which is 26 words, plus one punctuation mark, an equals sign. It begins, “Any body can die, evidently.”

As Poet Laureate, he strived to encourage poetry for everyone, and he demonstrated his continuing commitment by urging his audience to share favorite selections and make a recording for others on the website, www.favoritepoem.org. “For me, poetry is primarily a vocal art. It should sound good or it’s nothing.”

The Thoreau Farm Trust (www.thoreaufarm.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and rehabilitating the Henry David Thoreau’s birthplace in Concord and using the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, as an education and community center. If you are interested in touring the house, learning more about the organization, or how you can help, please contact Nancy Grohol at 978.369.3091 or nancy@thoreaufarm.org.