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While poetry is seldom discussed in this forum, I'd like to note that 88 year old Phillip Levine died over the weekend.

Born in Detroit, he worked at the EGB Packard plant, and later at Cadillac where his experiences help shape his award (Pulitzer, National Literary, etc) winning poems that reflected post-war workers and the lives they led. Today's New York Times contains an observation of his that compares a '37 Packard grille to that of a Rolls (we're all human, no matter how much a guy makes...a matter of perceived degrees, at most). The realities of the assembly line worker's existence is contained in the ways he put thoughts and words together.

If you're not familiar with his work, I'd suggest looking at it. You may discover some of the talent that was hidden in many of the workers who made do by crafting the Detroit cars that we still love, to support other quests. There are some real gems hidden in the gravel of that history. There is a Detroit realness in Levine's poetry that strongly reminds me of another recently departed literary talent, Elmore Leonard.

Thanks for the news, I just Googled Levine and see he was Poet Laureate of the US in 2011-2012. I'll read some of his work later, too DAMN cold to leave the house today.

Here is the link to a Detroit Free Press video by Brian Kaufman, the producer of the Packard Plant "Last Shift" video. Down below on that same page is an intro of the movie with a voice over by Philip.

freep.com/videos/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/02/15/23457881/

Brian told me that when he first showed Philip a copy of the poem Philip at first did not recognize it s one of his poems. And then Brian told him he wrote it several decades prior and then Philip looked at it again and the memories started to come back. That is when Brian started running the video tape and got the reaction you see.

I had the good fortune to speak briefly with Philip in order to get his permission to reprint the poem for the 2013 PAC National Meet booklet.