2023 Pinesong Dedication – David Radavich
If you’ve been to a meeting at Weymouth, you’ve been in the presence of David Radavich because he is a consistent fixture at NCPS events. He is tall and quiet and usually smiling. Once you’ve met him, you’ll remember his quiet nature—and he will remember you. David Radavich is a gentle poet with a fierce love for nurturing poetry and poets in North Carolina. He is engaged, he will read your poem; he is involved, he will update the Poetry Society website in a flash; and he is inspiring, he will encourage you. He will remember what you are working on, ask you about your poetry, and be genuinely interested in your answer.
David Radavich won’t tell you that he was a university professor for 35 years, or that he won back-to-back Fulbright Lectureships at the Universität Stuttgart in West Germany. He won’t tell you he was president of the North Carolina Poetry Society from 2015-2017, that over twenty of his plays have been performed across the United States, that he was 2009 Distinguished Professor at Eastern Illinois University, that he won the Zelda and Paul Gitlin Literary Prize for best essay on Thomas Wolfe twice, or that he has published ten books of poetry.
He will glide in, take a back seat, and be cordial to everyone. He is an unassuming soul, truly committed to North Carolina poetry. A self-described “socially-committed poet,” David has served as President of the Thomas Wolfe Society and The Charlotte Writers’ Club. He volunteers his time, all the time.
David continues to serve the NCPS as webmaster and Coordinator of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, a position he has held since 2018. The Gilbert-Chappell program publishes an annual anthology of poems by students and their mentors, Witness: Appalachia to Hatteras.
In the poem below, David Radavich urges us to slow down and listen to the Earth Song,
Listen to the chorus
tonight and always
so long as we’re alive
among the sentience
even now chanting
all around us
like bells or birds
For listening for poetry, his commitment to North Carolina literature, his unfailing dedication to the North Carolina Poetry Society, for his contributions to letters, friendships, mentorship, and kindness, we dedicate this edition of Pinesong to David Radavich.
Alana Dagenhart, NCPS President 2023
As Alana Dagenhart described with such eloquence, David Radavich is a person of deep compassion, high intelligence, formidable accomplishments, and selfless leadership. He has enriched and continues to enrich not only the North Carolina Poetry Society but the entire poetry community of our state with his creativity and talent, his diligence and attention to detail, and his unstinting friendship.
But perhaps David has enriched us less by all that he has accomplished and more by simply being the person who he is. David’s greatest gift to us and to poetry is himself. Perhaps we each imagine ourselves as moral creatures. Perhaps we like to think our actions and choices reflect our ideals. For David Radavich, there is no question—the things he believes with fervent passion guide him in every endeavor. The evidence is clear; the tenor and direction of the Poetry Society under David’s leadership have come to embody his high ideals. He brought an attitude of radical inclusiveness and acceptance into NCPS meetings and programs. He brought us through a dark night of conflict and spite into a new day of conscious peacemaking. He brought us together in the joy of friendship, collegiality, and creativity. We could track the initiatives and program developments and policies that accomplished all this, but their deeper origins lie in the leadership of a man who truly believes in the inestimable worth of all persons.
As we dedicate the 2023 edition of Pinesong to you, David, we thank you for all that you have given and all you continue to give, but even more we thank you for sharing yourself with us.
Bill Griffin, NCPS Treasurer 2023
Poetry by David Radavich
Slain Species
By the Way: Poems Over the Years
Greatest Hits
America Bound: An Epic for Our Time
Canonicals: Love’s Hours
Middle-East Mezze
The Countries We Live In
Magic Again: Selected Poems on Thomas Wolfe, co-edited with David Strange
America Abroad: An Epic of Discovery
Unter der Sonne / Under the Sun: German and English Poems