Vol. 18, No. 27	April 15, 1999

Poet Gibbons Ruark, English, will read from his newest collection, Passing Through Customs: New and Selected Poems at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 23, during a free, public program in Room 127, Memorial Hall.

The volume, recently published by Louisiana State University Press, contains poems from Ruark's 30 years of writing, including selections from his first four books and other poems that have previously been published in magazines. Like all of his other books, Ruark said, "This one is primarily about keeping company with the people I have loved and, in some cases, lost. It differs from most 'new and selected' books of poetry in that for every four poems I included, I left out six."

"Also," he added, "most such works are considerably longer and arranged chronologically. I've deliberately ignored the chronology and tried to shape a gathering of poems that would FEEL like a whole new book, even though some of the poems are 30 years old."

In reviewing the book, poet Elizabeth Spires, said, "This brilliant and beautiful book...firmly establishes Gibbons Ruark's important place in American poetry.... Without fail, his poems give exquisite pleasure."

According to poet X.J. Kennedy, "Ruark is a master musician; our common language, his instrument. You would have to sift through the life's work of a great many poets to find another 100 pages nearly as fine as these."

Ruark's poems have appeared widely in magazines like The New Republic, The New Yorker and Poetry, and in various anthologies and texts. They also have won the poet several awards, including three poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Pushcart Prize.

Previously collected in A Program for Survival, Reeds, Keeping Company, Small Rain, Forms of Retrieval and Rescue the Perishing, 70 of them now appear in Passing Through Customs.

Ruark has taught English at the University of Delaware since 1968. He also has been asked to read selections at the North Carolina museum. For more information on the poetry reading, call the UD Department of English at 831-1974.

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