06/11/2006 01:00 AM EDT

John Tagliabue is dead at 82. I never actually got to meet John, though we did come pretty close.

I was giving a reading and he was in the audience. Good thing I didn't realize this, because I would've been nervous to present my work before such an accomplished writer. John published thousands of poems over his long life. They are lively creatures, full of razor-sharp pictures and touched with a certain spontaneity. As he once said: "There's a lot of song and dance to them."

He was a lifelong friend of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell, and has been frequently praised by such iconic poets as Gwendolyn Brooks, Hayden Carruth and Amy Clampitt. Denise Levertov said of him: "Though he is by no means a primitive, his poems seem to appear in the world as naturally as wildflowers."

John was born in Italy and came to America at the age of 4. He graduated from Columbia University, where he studied alongside Allen Ginsberg, another longtime friend. After college John taught overseas on Fulbright grants before eventually being appointed to a professorship at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

There, he wrote the large body of his work and grew steadily in reputation as he grew in his art. Upon retiring in 1998, he and his wife moved to Providence to be near their daughter.

That was when we almost met. Unfortunately, the event had run a little late and John had to leave the reading early. But he had brought one of his books with him, and saw to it that it was given to me.

A couple of days later I received a letter from him explaining that he had brought along his book, thinking, "If I like your poems I'll give you my book, so consider it a thank-you present and a calling card." We stayed in touch after that.

John Tagliabue was the author of six books of poetry, including New and Selected Poems, 1942-1997. Here's his poem, "I can't stop from being shaken, neither can you"

I can't stop from being shaken, neither can you

I am my own goldenrod. I am my own field

I feel as if the wheat is growing in me or at least

that we're going at it together, the sun in the sunflower

and the seeds, all of them with Hindu scripture inside,

just waiting for you to get the right ragas, chants are

multiplied like fire burning all the cities and there is

Shiva, he becomes the goldenrod, he becomes the

dazzling field swaying.

-- JOHN TAGILABUE, 1923-2006

Editor's note: John Tagliabue died May 31 in Providence, according to the Bates College press office. In addition to Grace, whom he married in 1946, he is survived by two daughters, Francesca Tagliabue and Dina Tagliabue, and four grandchildren, Phoebe and Alexander Gould, and Juniper and Terra Tagliabue.

A memorial service will be held this summer, the college said, but no details were available.