Today begins a series of readings, talks, and events centered on the astounding life and work of 20th century poet, George Oppen. Oppen figured prominently in the influential Objectivist group of poets who sought to bring sincerity and plain-speaking in their writing in order to further make clear the ‘objects’ of real life and experience. Coming of age intellectually in the tumultuous period between the wars, Oppen famously abandoned the practice of poetry in the mid-1930s to pursue political activism as a member of the Communist Party. During World War II, he traded mere activism for military service to physically combat fascism, earning a Purple Heart after being seriously wounded. After roughly ten years spent in Mexico to evade the American witch hunt of communism, Oppen returned to New York in 1958 and began again to write poetry, including the 1969 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Of Being Numerous. The following is a discussion among the event’s organizers and a young, local poet.

Poet George Oppen

How and why is this event taking place? George Oppen’s poetry has long found deserving attention from many of UB’s faculty, including the late Robert Creeley, who was a particularly adamant admirer. The idea for this particular event got floated out early, and then really started to crystallize over the summer as students talked about possibilities for a commemorative event on Oppen’s 100th birthday. Conversations between the students and faculty have really made the event a collective undertaking. Which, I guess, is only proper, given that it’s George Oppen. —andrew rippeon

What can the intelligent layman look forward to encountering during this conference? Well, it promises to be an event quite different from the typical stuffy conference—one that Oppen himself might have liked. We will begin the festivities on Wednesday night at Rust Belt Books with short opening talks by Thom Donovan and Rob Halpern. Then the evening moves into a bit of free-form—an open reading. Participants will have an opportunity to share their own work or perhaps put Oppen himself in the room by reading some of his poems. Thursday and Friday will be full days at the Poetry Collection, with keynotes by esteemed guests, panels, and a roundtable with UB faculty. Both Thursday and Friday nights promise readings at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum on Porter Ave. Of special note is Friday night’s reading; Rachel Blau DuPlessis will be giving the premiere reading of a new serial poem inspired by the work of Oppen. —siobhan scarry

In Of Being Numerous, Oppen writes: “They await/ War, and the news / Is war / As always.” It’s quite chilling to encounter this great American voice in 2008 lamenting the news of 1968, yet in an eerily similar political situation. It seems that Oppen’s work qualifies Ezra Pound’s axiom, that “Literature is news that stays news.” Is there anything inherent in Oppen’s politics that have helped him stay news? I’m glad you’re making the connection between Oppen’s writing on Vietnam and our current military situation. Not because I think the two wars are similar (that’s for another conversation), but because Oppen’s poetry and personal commitment make it so hard to live and study without being aware of the world. Oppen says in an interview somewhere that you either care about something enough to do something about it, or you don’t care about it. I’m paraphrasing here, but the point is: Oppen didn’t just write about war, he went to war, knowingly. The same is true for his social activism. One of the things he gives us, or challenges us with, is that call to action. It’s not enough to simply think about the world. Oppen reminds us we live in it, and if we live in it, we’re always a part of that news. —andrew rippeon

Oppen’s work at times attempts to surmise a collective American voice (“The covenant is/ There shall be peoples.”), in such a way that seems to tap the root of Walt Whitman’s tree in Brooklyn. What can be said about this kind of collectivity in George Oppen’s poetry and why is this so rare in contemporary poetry? One thing that might separate Oppen from his modernist predecessors—and certainly from Whitman—is that he’s not trying to forge a collective American voice. He’s not trying to speak on behalf of anyone else or in any sort of prophetic or political tradition. During the 1930s when poetry became especially subject to Marxist and other political ideologies, Oppen simply stopped writing poetry and didn’t write again until he was in his 50s. He didn’t think poetry could resolve anything. Poetry was essentially a private endeavor that he began doing again after many years of political endeavor. Though in its privacy we can see how we need each other so much to survive. So Oppen’s poetry is a lot humbler than the writing of a Pound or a Whitman. And it’s precisely that humble scale that speaks to so many people. —zack finch

I want to leave some room for a few brief personal statements about what George Oppen’s work has become for you in your lives and minds. What is the relationship that you have with his poetry like? The relationship for me is that no matter how hard you can try not to write—the writing always comes back. He stopped for all those years to look at the world in a different light—but then at the end, his mind ravaged by Alzheimer’s, he sat in a room with his poems taped, even written right on the wall. I guess it is the way the poetry remains, that is what is hopeful and important for me about George Oppen and this whole writing life. —andrea strudensky

Oppen wrote his poetry from his life with its concerns, its company, and its sometimes irregular patterns of continuation. Questions arise and remain unresolved, suspended in examination that maintains active looking. Singular objects interacting, make “so small a picture,” a sublime arrangement. I’d like to say I love their quietness that comes to the eye like a field of reeds blanched by the sun and you can hear the air moving through and the manifold aspects visible in the single frame of perspective moving, too, and “to see them is to know ourselves” /”out of poverty, to begin again.” —jaye bartell

A full schedule of events can be found at http://english.buffalo.edu/oppenConference.