A tribute to James Dickey at 70

[Music] [Music] tonight we celebrate James Dickey if I said that the stars in their courses had to do with my living in Columbia South Carolina this would not be entirely true but there is something to it in an odd way it has come to be true there is a dock in my backyard and I sit there and calculate or this is the place the stars in their courses tell me I most am at this moment in time on the west bank of Lake Catherine in Columbia South Carolina 34 degrees north 80 degrees west nailed down by the numbers by post-dated Pythagorean calculations though the Masters famous space-time harmonics are not heard the music here is bluegrass Columbia and the University of South Carolina have become essential places in the writers life in 1966 Dickey won the National Book Award for buck dancers choice in the same year he was appointed consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress USC president Thomas F Jones invited Dickey to be the May 1968 commencement speaker and later appointed him professor in the English department in his suburban home in Columbia Dickey writes in the place he calls his cave of making here he moves from typewriter to typewriter from writing project to writing project during the past quarter century Dickey has published more than 30 major works for which he has received national and international recognition his awards and honors include Frances pre-med achieve for deliverance and the New York quarterly Day award both in 1972 in 1977 Jimmy Carter invited Dickey to read his poem the strength of fields at the Kennedy Center during the presidential inaugural ceremonies in 1981 he received the Levinson prize for five poems from Paula in may 1988 he was inducted into the 50 member American Academy of Arts and Letters such productivity and acclaim have assured Dicky of his place his prominence in American literature and have fixed forever USC Columbia and South Carolina in the literary world Dicky is also a practitioner of the art of teaching an avowed enthusiast for the life of action Dicky is equally at home in the world of the mind in the university setting he shares ideas and insights with faculty friends he works closely with students and their rightie as he is stated I'm one of the ones who should be a teacher because I do enjoy it so much teaching is an extremely exciting activity for me I teach because I believe in it the main thing that a teacher can do for a student is what Monroe spears did for me confirm the student in his desire to take literature seriously Dicky's imaginative world takes us through the ravages of world war ii bombing missions through the dangers of a canoe weekend in the hills of North Georgia through the lyricism of a young woman's coming-of-age through the magical mysteries of a child's nighttime dream world Dickey is a visionary poet who explores ways for a man to connect with the other that perspective of anyone or anything outside of himself he exchanges identities with the other to change his perspective sometimes he puts on masks or helmets or other head pieces as soon as he puts his head inside a hollowed-out wild boars head he immediately gains the boars last thoughts before being killed by a hunters arrow or on a world war two battlefield as soon as he puts on a dead soldiers helmet he acquires the soldiers last thoughts as he writes in the poem drinking from a helmet I stood as though I possessed a cool trembling man exactly my size swallowed whole the dead cannot rise up but their last thought hovers somewhere for whoever finds it nature serves as a spiritual anesthetic mentor for Dicky when he steps into the heart of nature armed with primitive weapons as a hunter he gains a degree of connection with nature with the other his comments indicate the special place the archer holds in Dickies world you see the flight of the arrow which for me is the prettiest thing in sports there's nothing to compare with the sale of a really nice 60 to 65 yard shot the arc of the arrow at that range is almost unbearably beautiful it gives the illusion of predestination it seems to be following a string right to the place you want to go it's classically simple the motif of man struggling to survive in nature appears prominently in Dickies new novel to the white sea in this novel Dicky returns as well to the subject of his wartime experiences the formative period of his life in career to the white sea focuses on an American pilot whose plane is shot down over Tokyo the day before the great fire bombing raid on that city as he escapes on foot in the heart of his enemy's country his journey escalates into a brutal Odyssey of self-discovery and an exploration the primal nature of war and man no matter what happens to his protagonists Dickey the writer triumphs he creates a rich visual scenery through a stunning narrative music on the printed page he also creates music with the guitar he loves to play as he says the guitar enriches his writing process if I had nine or ten lives I would like nothing better than to spend one of them exploring musical possibilities one sits there and plays and feels the vibration of the sound all the way through the back of the box into one's breastbone and one feels that one has the right sound at least for this particular piece if anyone asked me as to the poetry I write which had the most influence on my rhythmical whether it would be the English prose otic tradition in literature or the pulse of the folk guitar I could not say which was the more important I would think probably the latter these various places both literal and metaphorical convey in part the man and the artist James Dickey he came to this place and has lived among us for twenty-five years he brings us full circle to the poetry of his home his place his South Carolina the CD right arish above the mountain dear even because I have never seen them doing what I've been told they do swimming in moonlight from island to island I would like to see that I'm glad it happens in my state there are deer they do swim and at night and I plan to stay until I see them between the deer of the mountains and those of the sea those down on the salt between the South Carolina islands that is my balance and it is right for me the starry place between the antlers tonight James Dickey all of us here see with you that starry place between the antlers we are for a moment part of that special place you occupy in the literary natural visionary world we are with you and for you [Music]