David Budbill
How He Writes
A gray and drizzling day
here on Judevine Mountain
The birds and the wind are still,
and he too so dolorous and quiet
even his breath seems shrill.
His life is a vessel of silence
into which now voices begin
to flow. Slowly the vessel fills
like water filling a well. Now
they are calling more clearly,
calling from far below. Now
higher and closer to him. Now
the vessel is filled. Now it is
brimming over and his pen
floats on the brimming voices.
It follows wherever they go.
David Budbill
David Budbill was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1940 to a streetcar driver and a minister's daughter. He is the author of six books of poems, eight plays, a novel, a collection of short stories, a picture book for children, and dozens of essays, introductions, speeches, and book reviews. Zen Mountains/Zen Streets, an audio CD of his poetry, with the music of jazz bassist and composer William Parker, was released on the Boxholder Records label. He has also served as an occasional commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Among his prizes and honors are a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in playwriting, a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, and a Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for fiction. He lives in the mountains or northern Vermont where he tends his garden and website www.davidbudbill.com.
