TWA Poet: Philip Levine

1928 - 2015

It's the birthday of the current national poet laureate, Philip Levine , born in Detroit in 1928. He was a public school kid living about a mile from 8 Mile Road, the son of Russian emigrants. His father died when Levine was five. When he was 13, he found a weekly ritual that helped sustain him: He'd go outside after dinner, stand in a grove of trees, a…