Craft: Anne Porter

St. Francis rolled in the snow. To get rid of unwanted thoughts.—Anne Porter

Anne Porter (1911-2011) was a unique poet and a burning visionary, with a religious foundation to her thinking and craft. Shockingly, her first book of poetry, An Altogether Different Language (a National Book Award Finalist) was not published until 1994, when she was 83. Both Anne and her husband, the painter Fairfield Porter, were connected to the primaries of the New York School of poets (James Schuyler and David Shapiro in particular).

Anne Porter: “When was twelve years old / I came upon the paintings / Of one who was a misfit like myself”

Anne in a Striped Dress, Fairfield Porter, 1967

Porter was a devout Catholic and raised five children. Like Emily Dickinson, she shared her poems mainly with her friends and family and was disinterested in publishing. Also, like Dickinson, her poetry reflects an acute attention to the natural world and to God.