Muldoon

Last Friday, I had the rare and amazing opportunity to work with one of the preeminent poets of our time, Paul Muldoon. A 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner and poetry editor of The New Yorker, Muldoon is an Irish poet who teaches at Princeton University and is known for "difficulty, allusion, casual use of extremely obscure or archaic words, understated wit, punning, and deft technique in meter and slant rhyme" (Wikipedia). He was invited to UCSF/Berkeley and gave a medical humanities grand rounds here.

In the afternoon, he also held a special poetry workshop in which a few writers of the UCSF community gathered to get input on their poetry from Muldoon. Soft-spoken and articulate, his insight was remarkable. He then gave an hour long talk, reading a substantial amount of poetry, some related to medicine, death, birth, and meaning. His delivery was awe-inspiring, and simply his facility and knowledge of words was unsurpassed (it's a strange talent to have, but one that makes a good orator). I thoroughly enjoyed the richness of his language and poetry. It was a rare and welcome treat.

Image shown under fair use, from princeton.edu.