Charles Simic, The Art of Poetry No. 90
Charles Simic , The Art of Poetry No. 90 Interviewed by Mark Ford Issue 173, Spring 2005 Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on May 9, 1938. His early childhood was, inevitably, dominated by the Nazi invasion, and some of his most powerful poems derive from memories of this period. In “Two Dogs,” for instance, he recalls watching the Germans march past his house in 1944: The earth trembling, death going by . . . A little white dog ran into the street And got entangled with the soldiers’ feet. A kick made him fly as if he had wings. That’s what I keep seeing! Night coming down. A dog with wings. Simic’s father was arrested a number of times, and eventually fled Yugoslavia in 1944 for Italy, where he was again thrown into jail. On his release at the war’s end, George Simic spent five years in Trieste, and then moved to America; he was not to be reunited with his wife and two sons until 1954. Simic attended primary school in Belgrade. His mother, Hel...