"Landscape as a centering. The recognition of a region as a founding of the world."
— William Everson, Birth of a Poet
Birth of a Poet is a transcription of William Everson speaking to students at UC Santa Cruz in 1975-76. Part of his advice to budding writers was to learn from and focus on the regional element, what it means to be a poet living on the Pacific coast. He embraced the cycles of nature. Of "the world" of society, he said,
"You must not let that outside world, with its emphasis on the linear, deny you your deeper self, which is of the cyclical mode. Your course in life must always be to hold both realms in your being. Your vocation is the process by which you bring them together."
