Sam Cornish, Boston's first poet laureate, who championed the poetry " 'of where you are'--poems that touched readers physically and emotionally, politically and spiritually," died August 20, the Boston Globe reported. He was 82. During his tenure from 2008 to 2014, "he visited schoolchildren and senior centers, encouraging all he met to embrace the poems they were drawn to, whether written by 'poets of the six-pack' or giants such as T.S. Eliot" and "wanted nothing less than to bring 'poetry to people who do not read it.' "
Cornish "was long associated with the New England Mobile Book Fair, formerly ran a bookstore in Coolidge Corner with his wife for many years, and had worked at what is now Brookline Booksmith. Legend has it that he once alphabetized the Booksmith's fiction section backwards in order to place the work of writers he favored closer to the front of the store," the Globe wrote.
On its Facebook page, the New England Mobile Book Fair posted: "We lost a beloved member of our Book Fair family yesterday, Sam Cornish. We will pass along information about services as soon as they become available. If you haven't seen Sam's website, take a second. Click on interviews for a couple of great pieces. Rest in Peace Dear Sam."
In addition to publishing several books, Cornish taught literature and creative writing, primarily at Emerson College. His works include poetry collections Dead Beats (2011); An Apron Full of Beans: New and Selected Poems (2008); Songs of Jubilee: New and Selected Poems 1969–1983 (1986); and Generations (1971); as well as children's books Your Hand in Mine (1970) and Grandmother's Pictures (1967).
Cornish "traveled Boston's streets, watching the world through his thick glasses, missing nothing," the Globe noted. Poet Doug Holder, who published Dead Beats, recalled: "He'd have his little camera with him, taking snapshots. In a way, that's how his poetry worked--with little snapshots, and by noting everything that happened in the streets.... He was very genuine and very much a poet of the people. He gave everyone hope."
From "The South Was Waiting in Baltimore":
I was poor even
then my shoes were holes
held together
by threats & good luck but I read Camus
& listened to Martin
Luther King
Mr. Cornish was born in 1935 and grew up in Baltimore, the younger of two brothers who were raised by their mother, the former Sarah Keyes, after their father died when they were very young. He was drafted into the Army and served two years in the late 1950s — the first extended time during which he ate three square meals a day, he would later say.
He recounted his upbringing in “1935,” a 1990 book that also blended poetry and fiction.
Mr. Cornish, whose first marriage ended in divorce, was largely self-taught. He attended Goddard College and Northeastern University and taught widely in and around Boston. He was an instructor at Emerson for more than two
decades.
He also was long associated with the New England Mobile Book Fair, formerly ran a bookstore in Coolidge Corner with his wife for many years, and had worked at what is now Brookline Booksmith. Legend has it that he once alphabetized the Booksmith’s fiction section backwards in order to place the work of writers he favored closer to the front of the store.
In 1972, he met Florella Orowan, a graphic artist, at a party at the home of the store’s founder, Marshall Smith. They married in 1976, and he credited her influence on his writing and his life, telling the Globe in 2008: “My wife has raised me well.”
She is Mr. Cornish’s only survivor. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday August 30, 2018 in Brighton Allston Congregational Church in Brighton.
For Mr. Cornish, writing offered an avenue to the wider world and a way to discover one’s identity. He brought that message to everyone he taught, among them students at a Roxbury school in 1971.
“I love words: spoken, written, or coming out of my pen or pencil,” he told the children. “It is the love of words that tells me about myself.”
Complete notice to follow.