Poetry: Donald Green

A reading by Donald Green


Interview with Donald Green

Artist: Donald Green
Medium: Poetry
Location: University Avenue right off of Washington Square Park (but I’ve also seen him right outside West Fourth Station)

A poet of the utmost urbanity, Donald Green pedals his wares on the sidewalks of the great Manhattan byways. Seated at his folding table, with large mountings of his favorite poems flanking Mr. Green is more than happy to engage passing pedestrians in manner that is anything but. In his worn jacket and rumfled shirt you would not suppose that the man before you is anything less than poetic and that his regular manner of speech would have your forget your place and believing you were in the middle of a spontaneous theatrical dialogue. Such are the ways of Donald Green.

Such are the ways of a man who, as a young boy in Harlem, living just near the former house of Langston Hughes, felt different and turned to writing as his sanctuary. Such are the ways of a man whose father was standard working class but chose to work at Columbia University’s Library by day, study writing by night and sell poetry on the street.

Mr. Green has had a truly interesting career. After studying briefly at Columbia he began publishing his work. His work has appeared in books alongside such illustrious poets as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes and Donald Hall. He wrote The New York Times Millenium Poem in 2000 and was the lead off article in a New York Magazine spread on writers. Richard Rueben’s article “For a Pushcart Poet Life is Getting Verse and Verse” in 1997 was followed by articles on Patti Smith, Jim Carol, Mia Farow and more. Mr. Green also has a recorded reading with the Columbia School of Journalism on permanent archive which you can find at the school’s website.

In the midst of all this Mr. Green was persistently pursuing a career of poetry in his unique way. After saving up a few thousand dollars, Mr. Green left his job at Columbia to commit himself to writing. After quickly using up his savings, Mr. Green decided not to accept an offer to return to his previous job, but to persist while staying with his twin brother in Brooklyn who is “very traditional in his way of life”. Then, as Mr. Green tells it, recently (that is, a decade ago) he got the idea to try selling his poetry on the street in Brooklyn. “And the first person I asked bought a poem from me, and I was on my way.”

Today, Mr. Green sells collections of his poetry, some typed some hand written, in hand made anthologies on the street. He is also unafraid of the challenge to create spontaneously and will write a personalized poem upon request. However, as much as Mr. Green enjoys this life and feels it has contributed to his abilities, noting, “it’s given me a lot to write about...it has helped me a great deal with writing,” he says his time on the street is drawing to an end. Now he hopes be a more traditional writer and publish books of his poetry as well as a musical he has been working on.

Some poems by Donald Green:

Blue Joy
Out of gray
sky
came a bright blue
bird.
He sat upon my window sill
and for and instant - no
more than a ray of sun
in the whirl of time – we
stared at one another

He then lifted his blue wings
and gently returned to the gray

I combed my hair
I brushed my teeth
I dressed
I then had my morning lemon
and went off to work

And when the gray had
gone to yellow and from
yellow to a soft mellow
brown, I gathered my things and rushed home.

I wanted to see if he had
come again with evening time

Why?

I could not really say.

Perhaps this is what
loneliness can come to

When the Friend is You - Written by Donald Green on the spur of the moment
And a friend,
begins in
my mirror,
Not Alone in one
I can encounter.
For if the friend is not in my mirror,
how is it possible
to join
with someone
other,
Is it possible even
to look with
beauty consistent
with,
at the wonderous
Earth,
All that’s about us,
Without ever at first
To relish the self,
can God be company without
Yourself?
What bond, connection,
celebration can there honestly be
without the ONE before
You

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