Some people march to their own drummer. Poet Kenneth Brewer had his own band. Brewer, Utah's Poet Laureate, died last Wednesday after a lingering illness. He was 64.
He was loved for his wonderful wit, his wisdom, his piercing poetry and his amazing range as both a writer and a person.
He was a marvelous blend of opposites.
He was a baseball player, with small, delicate hands; a gourmet chef who would trudge out into the marsh in the morning, shoot his limit of mallards, then return home and cook them up in a glorious meal for his friends.
As a writer, his poems often felt like short stories and his essays like tight and true lyric poems. In the final months, before cancer claimed him, he wrote like the wind. And stitching those poems together — indeed, tugging together all the loose strands of his life — was the man's inimitable sense of humor.
A restless soul, he often moved — sending out photographs of his latest home with the inscription, "So many houses, so little time." He married the same woman twice, he said, "Because the divorce just didn't work out."
He taught English and creative writing at Utah State University for more than 30 years, mentoring not only young writers but — more important — young readers. He introduced legions of budding literary lights to the work of William Carlos Williams, Gary Snyder, Nicanor Parra and Robert Creeley.
Over the years many of his poems became "command performances" whenever he gave a reading. Fans will remember him, standing before a large crowd, holding his poems with his left hand while sweetly beating the rhythm of the lines with his right. He experimented with styles and forms and even types of books. One Brewer collection featured woodcuts by the late Harry Taylor and retailed for $700. When a freshman earnestly asked if he would be requiring the book for his class, Brewer laughed, then thanked the student for the idea.
As Utah's Poet Laureate, he traveled far and often, stirring up interest in the printed word among students at every level. Undoubtedly, those students will long be reading the inspired words of Ken Brewer.