Poet Laureate Philip Levine's 'Absolute Truth' : NPR

I bought Philip Levine's new volume of poetry Breath.  But first a couple of older pieces.
New Poet Laureate Philip Levine's 'Absolute Truth' : NPR:
Audio
Levine reading  What Work Is on Fresh Air in 1991


That poem is based on a real experience, Levine says, of waiting in line for two hours for a job at Ford's Highland Park plant in Michigan.

"I needed work. There was an ad in the newspaper that Ford Highland Park was hiring and they gave the hour — at eight o'clock — when they would open for our applications. And I got there around eight o'clock and there were quite a few guys ahead of me, and it turned out that they weren't opening until 10," Levine says.

He waited anyway. "I began thinking about why the hell did they advertise for eight? And then it occurred to me: they wanted us to wait two hours because they wanted men who were willing to wait two hours. In other words, people of sufficient docility to become robots."

Levine says he's still angry today — "It'll never leave me" — but adds that he discovered something else, in addition to the anger, as years passed.

"I had been in contact with people of enormous character and sweetness and affection and courage and strength," he says.

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