CalArts Reading to Feature Some Poetic License

For those whose appetite was merely whetted by the recent Los Angeles Poetry Festival, CalArts presents a tantalizing dessert: Mark Strand, the former poet laureate of the United States, will read and discuss his works Wednesday.

Verse might be the last thing that comes to mind when it comes to the Valencia campus, which is nationally known for its visual arts, dance and music. But Strand’s visit is part of the “Poetry Today” program, sponsored by the school’s Division of Critical Studies, which arranges four to six readings each year.

Other poets who have graced CalArts in the recent past include Gwendolyn Brooks and Dennis Phillips. Strand will appear from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday in Langley Hall.

An English professor at the University of Utah, Strand just completed a year in Washington serving in the historically vague role of poet laureate. That position was the most recent in a series of honors including a MacArthur “genius” award, an Edgar Allan Poe Prize and a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award.

His eight volumes of poetry have dealt with themes of death, disorder and the disappearance of meaning. His 1990 publication, “The Continuous Life,” begins:

For us, too, there was a wish to possess

Something beyond the world we knew, beyond ourselves,

Beyond our power to imagine, something nevertheless

In which we might see ourselves; . . .

It’s a journey this collection takes us on, rough going at times, through daily life. The poet has been labeled as dark and brooding. His images speak of quest. He is searching for that “something” in “. . . the sly, revealing angle of light turning your hair silver gray. . . .” The treasure is as elusive as “. . . a trace, like the scent of grass after a night of rain or the remains of a voice. . . .”

Yet a tentative hope emerges in the title poem:

Explain that you live between two great darks, the first

With an ending, the second without one, that the luckiest

Thing is having been born, that you live in a blur

Of hours and days, months and years, and believe

It has meaning, despite the occasional fear

You are slipping away with nothing completed, nothing

To prove you existed . . . .

In addition to poetry, Strand has published a collection of short fiction, “Mr. and Mrs. Baby and Other Stories,” and a best-selling children’s book, “Rembrandt Takes a Walk.” His works also include a number of translations and anthologies.

Mark Strand poetry reading is at 4 p.m. Wednesday at CalArts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia. Admission to the reading is free. Call (818) 367-5507.