Poet Dean Young Is Very Sick: Please Help

If you know him, if you read his poems, this might sound strange to you: Dean Young needs a heart.

This, perhaps, is where metaphors fail us.

As fellow poet and friend Tony Hoagland writes in an open letter at the National Foundation for Transplants, Dean has struggled with a degenerative heart condition that, at this point, finds his heart only operating at 8% of its full functionality. He needs a new heart soon, and he probably needs serious intermediate medical intervention to keep his heart pumping while he waits for one to become available. (UPDATE: I have heard that Dean went into ICU last night.)

It may surprise you that being one of the most popular of contemporary American poets doesn't translate into a stash of riches that makes such medical needs a mere blip on the financial records. The fact is, the costs are massive. And that is why those who love him arranged a heart fund for Dean Young through the NFT that you--yes, you!--are invited to donate to.

Truly, a life is at stake.

But wait, let me back up. Dean Young is one of the most well-liked prolific American poets alive today, cheered for his humor, glittering imagination, and sensitive insight. His books include Fall Higher (forthcoming in April 2011), The Foggist, Primitive Mentor, Embryoyo, Ready-Made Bouquet, Elegy on Toy Piano (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Skid (a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Prize), First Course in Turbulence, Strike Anywhere (which won the Colorado Poetry Prize), Beloved Infidel, and Design with X. He also has written The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction. Dean has won fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Oh, and then there's that little Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Oh, but Dean Young isn't the sort that's locked away in an attic to pen his poems. His passion for the art, the purpose of language, the possibilities of voice and verse, it all comes through in his teaching. He is currently the William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas in Austin, though I met him through the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers And let me tell you something: I know some folks suspect that low-res MFA programs lack a vibrant community. I call bullshit. I don't know about other programs, but the Warren Wilson set is crazy tight, both during and beyond the bounds of the semesters. As news about Dean's health spreads, these Warren Wilson folks are stepping up for him, brilliantly and beautifully, whether or not they were actual students of his, or even poets, or if they graduated years ago. And this, so soon after the same community was struck by the loss of poet Steve Orlen. Watching this unfold, my own heart gets all swelled up.

I hope this news about Dean Young inspires you to one or more of the following actions:

• Donate to help support Dean's heart. Today!
• Become an organ donor yourself, and be sure that those you love know about your wishes.
• Agitate on a broad scale so that organ transplants are accessible not only for those who happen to have a store of wealth when they are diagnosed--a reality that has become especially brutal after recent news from Arizona.
• UPDATE: You can also mail your well wishes and love to: Dean Young, 2809 French Place, Austin, TX  78722-2235

And thank you. 

 

Ash Ode
By Dean Young

When I saw you ahead I ran two blocks
shouting your name then realizing it wasn’t
you but some alarmed pretender, I went on
running, shouting now into the sky,
continuing your fame and luster. Since I've
been incinerated, I've oft returned to this thought,
that all things loved are pursued and never caught,
even as you slept beside me you were flying off.
At least what's never had can’t be lost, the sieve
of self stuck with just some larger chunks, jawbone,
wedding ring, a single repeated dream,
a lullaby in every elegy, descriptions
of the sea written in the desert, your broken
umbrella, me claiming I could fix it. 

 

Image Credit: The Sycamore Review

Comments

[Seth]

Thank you for writing this, Anna.

[Ralph Burns]

Dean, know I love you.

Your long long buddy,

Ralph

[Jé Maverick]

Sorry to hear. I let my Facebook friends know. Maybe sombody knows somebody who can help?