John Ciardi: soaring high above cliche

John Ciardi was the first author about whom I said, here'ssomeone who writes without cliches. His writing had grace but,better, it had altitude, flying over trite language like an eagleclearing a summit of dead trees.

My discovery came in the late 1950s when I was an English majorin college. I had a required reading list as long as an arm and anappetite for the unrequired almost beyond control.

What to do? The writing of Ciardi, who was then an Englishprofessor in another school and in his first years as poetry editorof Saturday Review, suggested a method for cutting back. Read awriter's essay, poem, story or column until the first cliche. Atthat collision, …