A conversation with Gerald Stern
—By Melissa Beattie-Moss
An afternoon with Jerry Stern is nothing if not an adventure. During my visit to his home along the banks of the canal in Lambertville, New Jersey, our interview was punctuated by a police officer dropping by to investigate a local burglary ("I didn't do it," Jerry informed him, deadpan), a half-dozen quick, animated phone calls ("my assistant, my life partner, my travel agent, everyone's checking in on me" explained Jerry) and a self-guided tour of his house ("Just go upstairs and wander around and have a look!").
That was just the first half-hour.
In our time together, the conversation veered from Paris to Pennsylvania to Jewish gangsters, marriage, divorce, Sir Paul McCartney (an admirer of Stern's work), Velveeta cheese, and parallel universes.
And, yes, we talked about poetry, which has long been at the core of Stern's passionate, creative life. To illustrate a point, Stern would frequently recite one of his poems. As a longtime reader of his work, it was transfixing to hear the conciseness and concreteness of his written words conveyed through his richly expressive voice and face.
Born eighty-one years ago in Pittsburgh to Polish and Ukrainian Jewish parents, Gerald Stern's resumé includes fourteen published books and many of the major honors in the world of American poetry, including: a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment of the Arts Fellowships, the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for the state of Pennsylvania, the Lamont Poetry Prize, a P.E.N. Award, the Patterson Poetry Prize, the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the Ruth Lilly Prize and most recently the 2005 Wallace Stevens Award, given by the Academy of American Poets as a lifetime achievement award in poetry.
Pretty impressive for a self-described "late bloomer" who first began to publish his poetry in his middle to late forties.
The Boston Globe has said that Stern's poems "praise the foolishness and grace of our mortal dance." Read on to be moved by the ebullient spirit and eclectic vision of one of America's most notable poets, that irrepressible son of Pittsburgh, Gerald Stern.