Article updated September 6, 2019 by Dave Read
Following the appearance in a January 2012 edition of the New Yorker of his now-famous essay “Out the Window,” I became acquainted with Donald Hall and had the pleasure of three visits at Eagle Pond Farm, with trips to a succession of area restraunts. Also, I attended his last reading and poetry talk in Nov. 2017 at the University of New Hampshire, as well as his funeral seven months later. This is an aggregation of links to useful, entertaining, and eluciadting items related to Donald Hall, who died on June 23, 2018.
- The Web of Stories, “an archive of stories from people who have influenced our world…” – recorded at Eagle Pond Farm, Jan. 2005; there are 111 video clips of 5.5 minutes duration – Web of Stories;
- Comprehensive, up-to-date, bibliogrphy and related info by the publisher of Poetry magzine – including 54 poems, several essays by and about him: Poetry Foundation;
- His 2001 essay, “Death to the Death of Poetry,” is among the material posted here: Academy of American Poets;
- In their own words: “This guide compiles links to resources on Donald Hall throughout the Library of Congress Web site, as well as links to external Web sites that include features on Hall’s life or selections of his work.” Includes White House video of President Obama presenting him the National Medal of Arts in 20120: Library of Congress;
- NPR interview, 2014;
- Interview by Peter A. Stitt, The Paris Review, The Art of Poetry, No. 43 (Issue 120, Fall 1991); The Paris Review;
Notice the pile of disused railroad ties above; Seamus Heaney collected a railroad spike here, then immortalized it in a poem, the monograph/broadside of which was one of Don’s prized possessions. When I learned that, after my visits to Wilmot, I looked up Heaney’s poem, and somehow wound up reading a different Heaney poem, which – if you’re not already exhausted, led me to make one of my own:
Machine Learning
The machine delivered
Seamus Heaney’s poem “May,”
where I found fontanel – a treat,
as if I’d been foraging morels,
but I’d asked for “Iron Spike,”
wherein he visits Eagle Pond,
home of Don Hall and Jane Kenyon,
poets he had a soft spot for.
– Dave Conlin Read