As one who has presented poetry in Sonoma, Marin and San Francisco Counties these last twenty years, I am grateful for the support that the late poet Eugene Ruggles gave me, and was gratified to learn several years ago that he was made an honorary Poet Laureate of Sonoma County. Had he been healthy enough, Gene would have loved to have actively participated in the activities that a poet laureate conducts.
Eugene Ruggles was a poetry activist most of his adult life. In addition to encouraging poets and aspiring writers of all ages, especially youth--he promoted and organized between fifteen and twenty major poetry readings and benefits in the last thirty years of his life, with the proceeds going to organizations like Amnesty International and the Phoenix Theater Foundation, causes that made a difference in the everyday life of young and old in San Francisco, Petaluma, Sonoma County, California, the US, and elsewhere around the world.
Gene was a significant poet. I trust that his work will be widely recognized as part of the American literary canon.
The only book of his published during his lifetime, The Lifeguard in the Snow (University of Pittsburgh Press), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, deserves to be republished.
Delia Moon, the executor of his literary estate, has been seeking a publisher for "Enough," his later work.
Please contact us or check back to this blog for an undate.
Carl Macki
1811 Novato Blvd., #69
Novato, CA 94947
415-596-5264
carlmacki@yahoo.com
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