Poet's legacy lives on in West Acton

Robert Creeley, who grew up in West Acton, had a distinguished career in poetry, publishing more than 60 books of verse, and more than a dozen books of prose. To honor those achievements, the Robert Creeley Award is given annually to an accomplished poet, and a poetry reading is held to honor the winner.

As many as 235 people have gathered in Acton Town Hall to hear the winner and two local poets read their works.

''Two hundred thirty-five people in a small town for poetry is unheard of," said Robert Clawson, who began the annual award five years ago with Creeley's support. ''Around here, it's one of the largest poetry events."

This year's event, which will be held Thursday, will have a different feel. Creeley, who attended all of the previous award ceremonies, died March 30 of complications from lung disease at age 78.

Despite Creeley's death, said Clawson, there are no plans to discontinue the award. Instead, it will continue as a memorial.

''Creeley was one of the top 20 poets of the 20th century, and he lived on into this century," said Clawson. ''We hope the award will be a thing that will carry forth in the future."

This year's winner, C.D. Wright of Providence, has published 11 collections of poetry and two Rhode Island literary maps, which are guides to the state's writers. She has won numerous awards for her work, and was the state poet of Rhode Island for five years.

She will read a selection of her works following readings by two local poets, Sophie Wadsworth from Harvard and Lois Ames from Sudbury. The evening's program will also feature the reading of a memorial poem for Creeley by Martin Espada, last year's winner and guest editor of the current issue of Ploughshares, a literary magazine at Emerson College.

Just months before his death, Creeley wrote what may be his last poem, ''Old Story: From the Diary of Francis Kilvert," which is published in the current issue of Ploughshares. According to Clawson, in his memorial poem to Creeley, Espada will use lines from the poem as a refrain.

During his lifetime, Creeley won many honors, including the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He also served as New York State poet laureate for two years, was a Samuel P. Capen professor of poetry and humanities at the State University of New York, Buffalo, and was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999. In recent years, he lived in Providence.

Some of the works that Creeley is best known for are ''I Know a Man," ''The Mirror," ''Ballad of the Despairing Husband," and ''A Song."

Winners of the Creeley Award, which is sponsored by a variety of community organizations, must have won several major prizes. Until now, Creeley had final approval of the winners, said Clawson, and the process will be revamped next year.

When choosing a winner for this year's award, Clawson said, the awards committee looked not only at the poet's fame, but also for a poet who embodies other traits that Creeley possessed, such as the ability to be clear, accessible and energetic.

''He was so responsive to every person he met," said Wright, who also teaches poetry at Brown University. It was there that she met Creeley, who taught there for two years.

''For an international writer to be that available to people, that's not that common," she said.

Wright said that she admired Creeley not only because of his poetry but because he was a full participant in the making of literature. ''He was always collaborating with artists in other media, writing one more recommendation or reading with a younger writer who needed the boost and the draw that he would bring," she said.

Creeley loved the Acton Memorial Library, where he spent much time reading during his youth.

Because he and Clawson wanted to share his love of reading with the community, as part of the award, the annual winner gets to choose $500 worth of books to give to the library. These books can be of poetry, works that inspired the poet, or books of interest to him or her.

''I think what is very hard is for the library to hold on to its primary purposes to make available to readers, out of their tax dollars, the best of what our culture has to offer," said Wright.

Wright has chosen a sampling of poetry and prose books for her contribution. Following tradition, those books will have a bookplate signed by the winner.

''I love the idea of adding to a library where Robert Creeley learned to read," said Wright. ''To just stand in his light for a few minutes is amazing."

The fifth annual Robert Creeley award night and poetry reading will be held Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Room 204 of Acton Town Hall, 472 Main St./Route 27 in Acton.Tickets for the event are free and are available at Acton Memorial Library, Citizens Library, Willow Books, Concord Bookshop, and West Acton Market, or by calling the Acton Memorial Library at 978-264-9641.