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Knife, 2010, 5/5, George Nama with handwritten manuscript by Charles Simić
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Eternities, Charles Simić and George Nama, 2009, 13/30, Limited edition folio of poems on Arches Vellum paper
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Gouache studies, George Nama, 2000 - 2010
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Study for Poems II, George Nama, 2008, Gouache on antique paper
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Etching from Eternities, George Nama with Charles Simić, 2009, Artists Proof
Talk
A reading of the poems of Charles Simić by Ruth Rosen
18 Jun 2015
Event times
7pm - 9pm
Cost of entry
£7.00 to include a glass of wine
Address
- One Eastfields Avenue
- London
England - SW18 1FQ
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Thames Clippers to Riverside Quarter from Blackfriars or Embankment
- Putney Bridge, East Putney
- Wandsworth Town
An evening exploring the portfolios, poetry and prints produced by George Nama with Alfred Brendel and Charles Simić.
About
Thursday, 18 June, 7pm
The Poems of Charles Simić read by Ruth Rosen
We would delighted if you could join us in the gallery for a glass of wine and poetry reading. Ruth Rosen will read a selection from Charles Simić's poetry featured in Poetic Images.
The British Council has described Ruth Rosen as one of England's leading poetry and prose performers. She has devised and delivered a series of lunchtime performances at the Tate, receiving fantastic reviews in the British press:
"She has cornered the market in poetry reading" The Sunday Times
"A splendid evening, a fascinating programme... She held the audience enthralled" The Evening Standard
until 24 June 2015 George Nama - Poetic Images
Charles Simić, 15th Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Eternities, Wonders of the Invisible World and Knife, Fork and Spoon, currently being exhibited in Poetic Images, interviewed for The Atlantic:
"When I wrote my early poems Knife, Fork, and Spoon, in 1964, I lived on 13th St. and University Place [in Manhattan] in a little dump of an apartment. It was summer, and I’d eaten something. I was looking at the table at the knife, the fork, and the spoon. And I noticed how interesting these three were. I’d stolen one from a greasy spoon, and another from somewhere else. I remember thinking, 'Well, Mr. Simić, let’s see if you can write a poem about this.' Because no one had ever written a poem about a fork, or a knife, although we have to use them every day.
So I wrote them, and I sent them to a magazine called The Quarterly Review of Literature. The editor wrote to me and rejected the poems, saying “Dear Mr. Simić ... you obviously sound like an intelligent young man.”
Which sort of puzzled me—I thought, 'What the fuck does he know?'
He said, “Why do you write poems about these things? Why do you write about such inconsequential things as silverware utensils?”
I came into the library with that letter, feeling both annoyed—I mean, thinking 'You idiot! Should I wrote about sunsets in June?! — and at the same time I felt triumphant. I thought, 'well, this is whats I'm going to do from now on. This is my thing.' I felt I was on the right track. There’s pleasure in that."
