Robert Kelly's homepage

Robert Kelly at Academy of American Poets

Robert Kelly at Poetry Foundation

Robert Kelly interviewed in The Modern Review

          My greatest blessing was hours every day alone;  both parents worked, and the hours after release from the hated schoolroom were my time. 

Walking the streets, looking at people, finding the libraries, reading, playing ball – the kind of solitude I needed, I think everyone needs to be able to process what they see and hear, and bring it into alignment with what they feel.

Walking around is a way of getting to know your own body.  And what you’re walking around in and through is language. 

I was walking through the names of things.

My eyesight was poor in those days; I squinted fearfully, and only color made sense.  Color and touch – what else do I trust even now?

Names.  What I saw I wanted to name, to know the names of.  Things got realer for me when I knew their names.

I can remember some of those words that came to transform things – names transform things into themselves.  Oak-tag.  Pine grove.  Hoarfrost.  Snow. 

Four poems

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