PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles-born, internationally known poet Tess Gallagher, the widow of the celebrated writer Raymond Carver, will join a small group of fellow poets for a public reading beside Carver’s grave at Ocean View Cemetery today (Monday).
Lovers of literature are welcome at the 3 p.m. event at Ocean View, 3127 W. 18th St.
Today would have been Carver’s 77th birthday, so this get-together will include one of his favorite foods: pie.
Any kind, from lemon to blackberry, will be welcome at the event, and several of the poets gathering Monday have promised to bring theirs, said Kate Reavey, one of the organizers.
Gallagher said Friday she has yet to choose which Carver poems to read.
Mourning dog
She’s grieving the loss of her dog, Hashi, who was injured in a 300-foot fall from the bluff outside Gallagher’s home May 17.
Clallam County Search and Rescue volunteer Kelly Thomas brought Hashi back up to safety.
But the dog, estimated to be about 11, lived only two more days, said Gallagher, who herself had rescued him seven years ago when he was homeless in Seattle.
“He slipped off in his sleep” early last Tuesday.
“At least we got to be together when he passed.”
When asked whether she felt up to Monday’s public appearance, Gallagher, 71, said, “Oh, yes. I’m one of those troopers,” and one who will be comforted at the gathering of friends.
“I have to honor life,” she said.
Poetry readings in remembrance of Carver, who lived the final 10 years of his life in Port Angeles, also were held at Ocean View in 2013 and 2014. Gallagher read “Hummingbird,” a poem her husband dedicated to her:
Suppose I say summer,
write the word “hummingbird,”
put it in an envelope,
take it down the hill
to the box. When you open
my letter you will recall
those days and how much,
just how much, I love you.
Carver died in 1988 at age 50 after a battle with lung cancer.
Twenty-four years later, his poem “Late Fragment” and his short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” became elements of the multiple-Academy Award-winning movie “Birdman.”
When accepting the Best Picture Oscar in February, director Alejandro Iñárritu thanked Gallagher for allowing him to use Carver’s works.
Monday’s reading will bring together a cross-section of poets and Carver admirers from around the region: Alice Derry and Tim Roos of Port Angeles, Reavey of Sequim, Kathryn Hunt of Port Townsend and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member Suzie Bennett are among those who will read favorite Carver poems.
New collection
Later this year, a new collection of Carver’s short stories will be published by Knopf.
It’s to be a U.S. edition of Beginners, which includes the original versions of stories including “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” The book could be out in September, Gallagher estimated.
These are the stories Carver wrote before Gordon Lish, his first editor at Knopf, altered them for the 1981 book also titled What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
An edition of Beginners with the unedited stories was released some years ago in Britain, but this will be a new American release.
“It’s going to be a big deal. I’m very, very happy,” said Gallagher, who added that she has spent more than 15 years bringing the book forward.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
