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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, October 8,1968
Vagabond poet will read works tomorrow
Photo by Robert Enriksen Jr.
A NOMAD OF LETTERS
Edward English, the "vagabond poet," wandered unannounced on campus yesterday to set up a reading of his works Wednesday in the Kansas Union.
By STEVE NAFUS Kansan Staff Writer
He wears the same ragged suit wherever he goes. He carries two dilapidated briefcases bulging with notes.
He is a self-admitted vagabond who looks like any average delegate to the annual hobos' convention.
He is something of a philosopher afflicted with incurable wanderlust.
Edward English is a poet.
The vagabond poet will read selections from his works at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
English has been on the road most of his life, but only since 1957 has he travelled as a poet. He used to hitchhike, but now he takes the bus because he says hitchhiking is for people who do not know where they are going and have no desire to get there in a hurry.
Although he now travels by bus, English still maintains a certain freedom in his journeys. He often arrives at a college without any advance notice, but he said he has never had any trouble arranging a poetry reading.
"That's why they call me the vagabond poet. I just show up," he said.
English said he heard about
the University of Kansas two years ago and has been trying to get here ever since. He said he just walked onto campus today and began trying to arrange a poetry reading.
The SUA poetry forum agreed to sponsor him.
English said he often gives away mimeographed copies of his work. He depends on the sponsoring organization to give him paper and supplies to make such copies.
"I try to write a poem about every place I go," he said. "You can write beautiful poems about some places, but it was harder to write about Kansas."
A poem he wrote about Kansas will be distributed before his reading.
The 53-year-old Negro terms himself a religious poet, but it is
a grass-roots religion of the self. English said his message is that God is inside everybody.
"When I tell people they are God, it's a shock. They have been told that God is somewhere else so often that they can hardly believe they are sacred too," English said.
English said he has never tried to publish any of his poems because he wants his texts to be translated into as many languages as possible.
He has travelled in Canada and Central America, as well as the United States, and next spring plans to go to Europe, Asia and Africa. That trip will bring publication of his verse one step closer, he says.
English calls Selma, Ala., his home, but admits he is seldom there.
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WASHINGTON (UPI)—The Pentagon said Monday that Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Army chief of staff, will be away from his desk about two weeks to undergo tests and treatment for an intestinal disorder -contracted in Vietnam.
The four-star general entered Walter Reed Army Medical Center last week,
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