Minnesota Public Radio Remembers Louis Jenkins (1942–2019)

The Duluth-based poet Louis Jenkins passed away on Sunday after a series of health challenges. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr remarks that Jenkins's "wryly humorous observations of human foibles drew fans from all over." More: 

After struggling recently with health problems, Jenkins died Saturday at age 77.

Jenkins never took himself too seriously. Not long before he went into hospice care, we talked about his latest book, "Where Your House is Now." It's filled with useful information and wisdom, and includes a piece on what he admitted was the very remote possibility that he might be a cult figure. In the poem "Cult Following" he imagines a band of his fanatical followers, meeting deep in the woods, under a full moon.

He read aloud: "They build a big bonfire, have a few drinks, read a poem or two of mine aloud. Maybe they sing a song, and end by throwing copies of my books into the fire."

Born in Oklahoma, Jenkins moved to Minnesota in 1971 and became a regular on the poetry circuit. He seemed to know everyone: He often appeared at readings with Robert Bly and Freya Manfred.

"There is a concentration of poets here that I don't think exists anywhere else," he said. "Not even New York."

While long associated with Duluth, Jenkins and his wife Anne heard the siren call of grandchildren and moved recently to the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.

As planes flew low overhead, squadrons of woodpeckers and other birds feasted at his window feeders. He said he still wrote every day, or at least tried to work on whichever knot of ideas he was untwisting. He talked about becoming a prose poet:

"I had some ideas, experiences, whatever, that I thought, 'How will I write these down?' And I thought, ‘What's the sense of the line break?’ I couldn't really tell."

Read more at Minnesota Public Radio.