Poem of the Week: “Mine Own Phil Levine” by Dorianne Laux

The VPR Poem of the Week is Dorianne Laux’s “Mine Own Phil Levine,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2009-2010 issue (Volume XI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. Last week, the Library of Congress named Philip Levine the new Poet Laureate of the United States.

“Mine Own Phil Levine” was also published in Poetry from Paradise Valley (Pecan Grove Press, 2010), an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR , which has been selected as a finalist in poetry for the Best Books of Indiana competition sponsored by the Indiana Center for the Book, supported by the Indiana State Library.

Dorianne Laux is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently The Book of Men (W.W. Norton, 2011). She is also the coauthor, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion. Among her awards are a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim fellowship. What We Carry (BOA Editions, 1994) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon (W.W. Norton, 2007), reviewed in One Poet’s Notes, was the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux teaches at North Carolina State University and lives in Raleigh with her husband, the poet Joseph Millar.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.