Poetry "To read Richard Caddel's life of the poem—MAGPIE WORDS—is to relearn why poetry still matters. His writing cleanses our shared language of its inherited toxicity. Each notebook jotting is placed with an eye to new coherence as if his poems were carpentered together from rescued fragments of almost-lost speech. There is no smooth finality. His poems ask us to stop—in our headlong rush forward—to read and re-read our lives with critical attention"—Kathleen Frazer. "I love this poet's particularity, his quiet persistence, the care he offers the world and everything in it. Whatever is human is blest by his being one too"—Robert Creely.

Author City: DURHAM UNK

Ric Caddel (1949-2003) was a poet, librarian and, with his wife Ann, the publisher of Pig Press. He published numerous books including his selected MAGPIE WORDS. At Durham University he headed the Basil Bunting Poetry Center. Pig Press brought out books by August Kleinzahler, Robert Creeley and Lorine Niedecker among many others.