Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

The life of a poet is like anyone's life. A poet usually has a day job, has to support a family,

and find the time for poetry when he or she

is not teaching or working at another less congenial job. Every once in a while, though, a

prize comes along, and the poet is free to be devoted to his or her first love poetry.

Today, we'll be talking to two guests about one prize, the Kingsley Tuffs

Award, which is given to a poet at mid-career. It's one of the largest awards in American

literature, an award of $100,000. We'll be talking to this year's winner, D.A. Powell, Doug Powell,

then to one of the judges, Linda Gregerson,

who won the prize herself in 2003 for her book, Waterborne. D.A. Powell's Tufts award-winning

book is Chronic, published by Grey Wolf. His first three books form a trilogy, tea, lunch,

and cocktails, which deals in part with gay life, tea, lunch, and cocktails,

which deals in part with gay life, gay sensibility, and the AIDS epidemic.

I thought I'd begin by asking D.A. Powell to read his poem, Sprig of Lilac.

Okay.

Sprig of lilac.

In a week, you could watch me crumble to smut, spent hues, spent perfumes, dust upon the lapel

...