# 1970 in poetry

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

## Events

* May – "La nuit de la poésie", a poetry reading in Montreal bringing together poets from French Canada to recite before an audience of more than 2,000 in the Théâtre du Gesu, lasting until 7 a.m.
* Release of Tomfoolery, an animated film directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas, based on the nonsense verse of Edward Lear (especially "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo") and Lewis Carroll
* First issue of Tapia (later named the Trinidad & Tobago Review) published
* In the United Kingdom, "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices", a poem by Pete Morgan, is set to music by Al Stewart and included in his "Zero She Flies" album this year.

## Works published in English

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

### Australia

* Robert Adamson Canticles on the Skin
* B. Elliott and A. Mitchell, Bards in the Wilderness: Australian Colonial Poetry to 1920, anthology
* John Tranter, Parallax, South Head Press

### Canada

* Earle Birney, Rag & Bone Shop. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart).
* Joan Finnigan, It Was Warm and Sunny When We Set Out
* Gail Fox, Dangerous Season
* R.A.D. Ford, The Solitary City, his poems and translations from Russian and Portuguese
* John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse
* Michael Ondaatje:
** The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-handed Poems (adapted by Ondaatje into a play of the same name in 1973), Toronto: Anansi ISBN 0-88784-018-3 ; New York: Berkeley, 1975
** Leonard Cohen (literary criticism), Toronto: McClelland & Stewart
* Joe Rosenblatt, Bumblebee Dithyramb.

#### Anthologies in Canada

* Robert Evans, editor, Song to a Seagull, collected Canadian songs and poems
* John Glassco, editor, The Poetry of French Canada in Translation, translated by English-speaking poets, including E. J. Pratt, Al Purdy, Leonard Cohen; and poetic lyrics from recent songs
* Raymond Souster and Douglas Lochhead, eds. New Poems of the Seventies. Ottawa: Oberon Press.
* Raymond Souster and Douglas Lochhead, eds. Made in Canada. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1970.
* Raymond Souster and Richard Woollatt, eds. Generation Now. Longman Canada.

### India in English

* Shiv Kumar, Articulate Silences ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* Keki N. Daruwalla, Under Orion ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India . also New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers India Pvt Ltd.;
* Sukanta Chaudhuri, The Glass King and Other Poems ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* Gauri Deshpande, Lost Love ( Poetry in English ),
* Suniti Namjoshi, More Poems( Poetry in English ),
* Roshen Alkazi, Seventeen More Poems ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India . (see also Seventeen Poems 1965)
* Margaret Chatterjee, Towards the Sun ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* Mary Ann Das Gupta, The Peacock Smiles ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* N. Prasad, Iconography of Time, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .
* Monika Varma, Green Leaves & Gold ( Poetry in English ), Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India .

### Ireland

* Leland Bardwell, The Mad Cyclist
* Seamus Heaney, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom:
** Night Drive, Gilbertson
** A Boy Driving His Father to Confession, Sceptre Press
* Derek Mahon, Beyond Howth Head, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom

### New Zealand

* James K. Baxter, Jerusalem Sonnets
* Bill Manhire, Malady
* F. McKay, New Zealand Poetry, scholarship
* Vincent O'Sullivan, editor, An Anthology of Twentieth Century New Zealand Verse
* J. E. Weir, The Poetry of James K. Baxter, a critical study

### United Kingdom

* Dannie Abse, Selected Poems
* Margaret Atwood, The Journals of Susanna Moodie
* George Barker, At Thurgarton Church
* R. H. Bowden, Poems from Italy
* Frederick Broadie, My Findings
* Michael Dennis Browne, The Wife of Winter
* Charles Causley, Figgie Hobbin
* Donald Davie, Six Epistles to Eva Hesse
* C. Day-Lewis, The Whispering Roots
* Patric Dickinson, More Than Time
* Clifford Dyment, Collected Poems
* D.J. Enright, Selected Poems
* W.S. Graham, Malcolm Mooney's Land
* Ian Hamilton, The Visit
* Tony Harrison, The Loiners
* Seamus Heaney, Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom:
** Night Drive, Gilbertson
** A Boy Driving His Father to Confession, Sceptre Press
* Glyn Hughes, Neighbours
* Ted Hughes, Crow
* C. Day-Lewis, The Whispering Roots
* George MacBeth, The Burning Cone
* Norman MacCaig, A Man in My Position
* Hugh MacDiarmid, Selected Poems
* Sorley MacLean, George Campbell Hay, William Neill and Stuart MacGregor, Four Points of a Saltire (includes some poems in Scottish Gaelic)
* Derek Mahon, Beyond Howth Head Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom
* Walter de la Mare, The Complete Poems of Walter de la Mare
* Stuart Montgomery, Circe
* Brian Patten, The Homecoming
* Christopher Pilling, Snakes and Girls, won the new Poets Award sponsored by Leeds university and the Yorkshire Post
* Peter Porter, The Last of England
* Burns Singer, Collected Poems (posthumous)
* Iain Crichton Smith, Selected Poems
* Charles Tomlinson, The Way of a World
* John Wain, Letters to Five Artists
* Ted Walker, The Night Bathers
* Hugo Williams, Sugar Daddy
* Mary Wilson (wife of Prime Minister Harold Wilson), Selected Poems, "easily the 'best selling'" poetry book of the year.
* Clive Young, Ashdragons, Flowerdeath and Sun

#### Anthologies in the United Kingdom

* Alan Bold, editor, The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse
* Peter Robins, editor, Doves for the Seventies
* Edward Lucie-Smith, editor, British Poetry since 1945, Penguin (2nd edition 1985)
* F.E.S. Finn, editor, Poems of the Sixties
* Howard Sergeant, editor, Poetry of the 1940s

### United States

* A.R. Ammons, Uplands
* John Ashbery, The Double Dream of Spring
* Paul Blackburn:
** The Assassination of President McKinley
** Three Dreams and an Old Poem
** Gin: Four Journal Pieces
* Louise Bogan, A Poet's Alphabet
* Philip Booth, Margins
* Stanley Burnshaw, The Seamless Web
* Gwendolyn Brooks, Family Pictures
* Raymond Carver, Winter Insomnia
* J. P. Clark, Casualties: Poems 1966–68, Nigerian poet published in the United States
* Clark Coolidge, Space, Harper & Row
* L. Sprague de Camp, Demons and Dinosaurs
* James Dickey, The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy
* Ed Dorn:
** Gunslinger I & II, Fulcrum Press
** Songs Set Two: a Short Count, Frontier Press, ISBN 978-0-686-05052-0
* Michael S. Harper, Dear John, Dear Coultrane, nominated for the National Book Award
* John Hollander, Images of Voice, criticism
* David Ignatow, Poems: 1934-1969
* LeRoi Jones, It's Nation Time
* Shirley Kaufman, the Floor Keeps Turning
* Denise Levertov, Relearning the Alphabet
* William Meredith, Earth Walk
* W. S. Merwin:
** The Carrier of Ladders, New York: Atheneum (awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1971)
** Signs, with graphics by A. D. Moore; Iowa City, Iowa: Stone Wall Press
* Lorine Niedecker, My Life by Water: Collected Poems, 1936-1968 (Fulcrum Press)
* Michael Ondaatje, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
* Ezra Pound's Drafts and Fragments of Cantos CX to CXVII
* Mark Strand, Darker, Canadian native living in and published in the United States
* May Swenson, Iconographs
* Mona Van Duyn, To See, To Take
* Reed Whittemore, Fifty Poems Fifty
* William Carlos Williams, Imaginations (posthumous)

### Other in English

* J. P. Clark, Casualties: Poems 1966–68, Nigerian poet published in the United States

## Works published in other languages

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

### Arabic language

* Nizar Qabbani, Syrian:
** Savage Poems
** Book of Love
** 100 Love Letters

### Denmark

* Thorkild Bjørnvig, a book of "collected or selected works"
* Regin Dahl, Ærinde uden betydning
* Ivan Malinovski, a book of "collected or selected works"
* Jess Ørnsbo, a book of "collected or selected works"
* Klaus Rifbjerg, Mytologi, Denmark

### French language
#### Canada

* Gaston Miron, L'Homme Rapaillé
* Yves Préfontaine:
** Débâcle
** À l'Orée des travaux
* Fernand Dumont, Parler de septembre
* Raoul Duguay, Manifeste de l'Infonie
* Nicole Brossard, Suite logique
* Louis-Philippe Hébert, Les Mangeurs de terre

#### France

* M. Béalu, La Nuit nous garde
* Alain Bosquet and Pierre Seghers, Poèmes de l'année
* L. Brauquier, Feux d'épaves
* Mohammed Dib, Formulaires
* Emily Dickinson, Poésies complètes, translated from the original English by Guy Jean Forgue; Aubier-Flammarion
* Pierre Emmanuel, pen name of Noël Mathieu, Jacob
* Andre Frenaud, Depuis toujours déja
* Eugene Guilleveic, Paroi
* Michel Leiris, Mots sans mémoire
* C. Le Quintrec, La Marche des arbres
* M. Manoll, Incarnada
* J.L. Moreau, Sous le masque des mots
* J. Tardieu, Poèmes à jouer
* Vandercammen, Horizon de la vigie

### Germany

* Paul Celan, Lightduress (Lichtzwang, Romanian, writing in German)

### Hebrew

* M. Temkin, Shirai Yerushalayim
* A. Broides, Tahana ve-Derech
* Z. Gilead, Or Hozer
* Dan Pagis, Gilgul ("Transformations")
* I. Shalev, Naar Shav Min ha-Tzava
* Abba Kovner, Hupahba-Midbar
* T. Carmi, Davar Ahed
* Avot Yeshurun, Ze Shaim ha-Sefere

### Italy

* Carmelo Bene, L'orecchio mancante
* Dino Buzzati, Poema a fumetti
* Alfredo Giuliani, Il tautofono
* Sandro Penna, Tutte le poesie
* Nelo Risi, Di certe cose
* Maria Luisa Spaziani, L'occhio del ciclone
* Giovanni Testori, Erodiade

### Norway

* Rolf Jacobsen, Headlines
* Stein Mehren, Aurora
* Ragnvald Skrede, Lauvfall
* Simen Skjønsberg, Flyttedag
* Tarjei Vesaas, Liv ved straumen (posthumous)

### Portuguese language
#### Brazil

* Augusto de Campos, Equivocábulos, collection of "semantic-visual texts, photo-poems, and 'Viagem via linguagem', a collapsible environment-poem resembling an architect's model"
* Affonso Avila, Código de Minas
* Silviano Santiago, Salto

### Russian

* Andrei Voznesenski, The Shadow of Sound
* Y. Smelyakov, December
* Boris Slutski, Tales for Today
* Evgeni Vinokurov, Shows
* Leonid Martynov, Peoples' Names
* Leonid Vasilyev, Ognevistsa
* Evgeni Yevtushenko, a collection, including some new poems and omitting some "controversial earlier ones"

### Spanish language
#### Spain

* Jorge Guillén, Obra poética
* José Caballero Bonald, Vivar para contarlo ("Live to Tell It"), including "Zauberlehrling"

#### Peru

* Washington Delgado, Un mundo dividado
* C.G. Belli, Sextinas
* J.G. Rose, Informe al rey
* M. Martos, Cuaderno de quejas y contentamientos
* C. Bustamante, El nombre de las cosas

#### Elsewhere in Latin America

* Julio Cortázar, Último round, miscellany of stories, poems, essays and collage games (Argentina)
* Alberto Girri, Antología temática (Argentina)
* Alberto Vanasco, Canto rodado (Argentina)
* I. López Vallecillo, Puro asombro (El Salvador)
* Ernesto Cardenal, Salmos (Nicaragua)
* R. Fernández Retamar, Que veremos arder (Cuba)
* Nicanor Parra, Obra gruesa (Chile)
* Enrique Lihn, La musiquilla de las pobres esferas (Chile)

### Sweden

* Werner Aspenström, Inre ("Inner")
* Gören Sonnevi, Det Måste gå ("It Must Be Possible")
* Maja Ekelöf, Rapport från en skurhink ("Report from a Scrub Bucket")
* Henry Olsson, Vinlövsranka och hagtornskrans, a study of the poet Gustaf Fröding (died 1911)

### Yiddish
#### Israel

* Abraham Sutzkever, Ripened Faces
* Yaakov Zvi Shargel, Sunny Doorsteps
* Aryeh Shamri, Song in the Barn
* David Rodin, Young and Younger, for young readers
* Leizer Eichenrand, Thirst for Duration

#### United States

* Joseph Rubeinstein, Exodus from Europe, third volume of a narrative trilogy
* Wolf Pasmanik, My Poems
* Kadya Molodovsky, Marzipans, for children and adults
* Moshe Shifris, Under One Roof

#### Elsewhere

* Melekh Ravitch, Post Scriptus (Canada)
* Jacob Sternberg, Poem and Ballad on the Carpathians (France)
* Izzy Kharik, With Body and Life (Russia)

### Other languages

* Luo Fu, River Without Banks, Chinese (Taiwan)
* Rituraj, Kitna Thora Waqt; India, Hindi-language
* Nirmalendu Goon, Huliya; Pakistan (Now Bangladesh), Bengali-language

## Awards and honors
### Canada

* See 1970 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

### United Kingdom

* Cholmondeley Award: Kathleen Raine, Douglas Livingstone, Edward Brathwaite
* Eric Gregory Award: Helen Frye, Paul Mills, John Mole, Brian Morse, Alan Perry, Richard Tibbitts
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Roy Fuller

### United States

* Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (later the post would be called "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress"): William Stafford appointed this year.
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Howard, Untitled Subjects
* National Book Award for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems
* Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Howard Nemerov

### France

* Prix Max Jacob: Daniel Boulanger for Tchadiennes and Retouches
* French Academy's Grand Prix de Poèsie: Jean Follain

### Soviet Union

* Lenin Prize: Nikolai Tikhonov

## Births

* February 27 – Rachel Mann, English trans woman poet and Anglican priest
* September 10 – Phaswane Mpe (died 2004), South African novelist and poet
* September 16 – Nick Sagan, American poet, novelist and screenwriter
* September 24 – Gemma Moraleja Paz, Spanish poet and novelist
* Also:
** Malika Booker, British poet
** Victoria Chang, American poet
** Tim Kendall, English poet, editor, critic and academic
** David Roderick, American poet
** Faruk Šehić, Bosnian poet and fiction writer
** Brenda Shaughnessy, Japanese-born American poet

## Deaths

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
* January 10 – Charles Olson, 59 (born 1910), American poet, of cancer
* January 15 – Leah Goldberg, 58 (born 1911), Israeli poet who wrote in Hebrew
* January 24 – Caresse Crosby, also known as "Mary Phelps Jacob", 78 (born 1891), American poet and New York socialite, who, in 1927, founded Black Sun Press with her husband Harry Crosby (also a poet) and who in 1910 invented the first modern bra to receive a patent and gain wide acceptance
* February 4 – Louise Bogan, 72 (born 1897), American poet, United States Poet Laureate
* February 19 – Edsel Ford, 41 (born 1928), American poet
* March 26 – Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, 82 (born 1888), American poet
* March 28 – Nathan Alterman, 59 (born 1910), Israeli poet, journalist and translator
* March 29 – Vera Brittain, 76 (born 1893) English novelist and poet
* about April 20 – Paul Celan, 49 (born 1920), Romanian-born poet who wrote in German and became a French citizen, suicide
* May 12 – Nelly Sachs, 78 (born 1891), German-Swedish poet and dramatist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966
* June 2 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, 82 (born 1888), Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic
* June 18 – N. P. van Wyk Louw, 64 (born 1906), South African Afrikaans poet and critic
* September 23 – John Gawsworth, 58 (born 1912), English poet, anthologist, Fitzrovian and King Juan I of Redonda
* September 28 – John Dos Passos, 74 (born 1896), American novelist, poet and artist
* November 25 – Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫, pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka 平岡 公威, 45 (born 1925), Japanese author, poet and playwright, by public ritual suicide
* December 11 – Arthur Nortje, 27 (born 1942), South African poet, of a drug overdose
* December 31 – Lorine Niedecker, 67 (born 1903), American Objectivist poet