"Creeley, eminent UB poet, dies at 78"

World-renowned poet Robert Creeley, a UB professor for 37 years who was one of Buffalo's most influential figures, died early Wednesday. He was 78.

Dubbed by many as one of most important American poets of the 20th century, Creeley passed away at a hospital in Texas, where he was a visiting writer taking part in a literary foundation. According to the Boston Globe, he died of complications from lung diseases. Creeley had emphysema.

Joseph Conte, chair of the English department, said it didn't surprise him that Creeley would be on the road as a visiting writer when he died. If there was one fitting way for the passionate and energetic Creeley to go, Conte said, it would be while bringing poetry out into the community.

"Creeley's poetry was a forthright expression in an American idiom," he said. "It's speech as we know it, but elevated."

During UB's tremendous academic and cultural growth in the 1960s, Creeley was part of Buffalo's flourishing artistic community and also loved jazz, taking part in the avant-garde and beatnik movements as a friend of Allen Ginsberg. He found inspiration in the poet William Carlos Williams and jazz artists Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

His poems, said Conte, whether they were about love, anxiety, fear or language, "were always a direct expression of the act of the mind."

Creeley eventually helped found UB's poetics program and served as the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters.

Known for his projective and organic verse, and his role in creating the Black Mountain School of poetry, Creeley's writing went against the grain of historically rigid academic poetry, Conte said.

"He had a quiet intensity that was the ultimate cool," said English professor Barbara Bono.

Bono's prized memory of Creeley came 15 years ago during a graduate student's Ph.D. oral exam. Bono said she started by dryly grilling the student on Shakespearian sonnets, and then watched as "Bill (the grad student) and Bob (Creeley) drew out their cigarettes and riffed for half an hour on William Burroughs."

In memory of Creeley, many English professors read his poems in their classes on Thursday, and current Gray Chair Steven McCaffrey is organizing an informal celebration of his work. Scheduled for April 7 at 3:30 p.m. in the Capen Hall Poetry and Rare Books Library, the memorial event will give participants the opportunity to either share their favorite Creeley poems and anecdotes, or discover Creeley's work for the first time.

To Creeley, "poetry was a living instrument," Conte said, and it was often best when read aloud. Creeley was known for bringing his poetry to life with frequent readings.

"The measure of a poem is the individual rhythms of the poet's voice and breath," Conte said.

Although Creeley was a literary celebrity, he often didn't act like one.

"While this was a man who was internationally famous, he was enormously accessible," Conte said. "Very plainspoken with students and faculty, and anyone who shared his interests."

Following Creeley's death, Conte sent an e-mail to the English department listserv to report and react to his passing. The e-mail included one of Creeley's poems and a message from Charles Bernstein, former UB professor and friend of Creeley's, who summed up the loss in the catchphrase of the poet himself:

"As Bob would always say, Onward!; but I, for one, am faltering."

The Spectrum plans to run an extensive look at the life and career of Robert Creeley on April 6.