John Ciardi: Friend or Foe? He threw poems into the garbage when the first line didn't grab him— his way to weed out 300 poems sent to him each week at the Saturday Review. Dick Maxwell told this story to his class at Foothill College Poetry Workshops. That's how John Ciardi made lots of enemies to those who never saw their poems in print. My memory of John Ciardi was different. March 19, 1972, New England Life Hall— Ciardi's talk: "The Longest Walk in the Universe: Dante's Divine Comedy". That was 45 years ago, but I still recall his first words— "A man is defined by his attention. Dante's attention was God. That's why he experienced Paradise." My attention was protein structure— the Chou-Fasman Predictive Method became a science citation classic, the most cited paper in its field. After his talk, cheese and drinks were served in the lobby. A lady asked how many years it would take to read Dante in order to go to heaven. Ciardi replied "A lifetime." I asked why is Dante's walk the longest in the universe? Ciardi said "Dante went through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven— isn't that's the longest walk of all time?" Then I cited Plato's Phaedrus (248e, 249c) on the soul's 10,000 years transmigration. But those who studied philosophy will have wings to bear them straight to heaven. Since Dante is savvy with philosophy, he would go to heaven instantly— so his walk would in fact be the shortest in the universe. Ciardi patted me on the back and smiled— "Why of course! He did it in a week!" I was touched by his deep humility and on that day, Ciardi became my friend.   — Peter Y. Chou       Mountain View, 5-1-2017

John Ciardi (1916-1986) Saturday Review weekly Poetry Editor (1956-1972) Community Church News Ciardi's 3-19-1972 talk Dante's Divine Comedy (1321) John Ciardi translation (1970)