Clemens Starck

{{short description|American poet (1937–2024)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}

{{infobox writer

| name = Clemens Starck

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1937|11|30}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|3|21|1937|11|30}}

| occupation = Poet

| nationality = American

| awards = Oregon Book Award (1996)

}}

Clemens Starck (November 30, 1937– March 21, 2024){{Cite web |title=Clemens Starck Obituary (1937 - 2024) - Dallas, OR - Corvallis Gazette-Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettetimes/name/clemens-starck-obituary?id=54846067 |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=Legacy.com}} was an American poet.

He is the author of seven books of poems, and recipient of the 1996 William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award{{cite web |title=Book awards: William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award |url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/William%252BStafford%252BMemorial%252BPoetry%252BAward |website=www.librarything.com |accessdate=October 30, 2018}} and the Oregon Book Award for Journeyman's Wages. Two of his other books were also finalists for the Oregon Book Award.{{cite web |title=Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry |url=https://literary-arts.org/what-we-do/oba-home/book-awards/poetry/ |website=Literary Arts|date=April 4, 2017 }}

Several of his poems, including "One of the Locals", were read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac.{{cite web |title="One of the Locals" by Clemens Starck |url=https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2004%252F07%252F08.html |website=The Writer's Almanac |date=July 8, 2004}} A chapter dedicated to Starck's poetry, “Clemens Starck: ‘poems in my head, a hammer in my hand,” is within Durable Goods: Appreciations of Oregon Poets,{{cite web|url=http://oregonpoets.org/durable-goods-appreciations-of-oregon-poets/|title=Durable Goods: Appreciations of Oregon Poets|date=March 1, 2017|publisher=}} written by Erik Muller and published by Mountains & Rivers Press in 2017.

Jon Broderick, founder of the annual FisherPoets Gathering in Astoria, Oregon, cites Starck as the inspiration for the festival. "Clem wrote poetry about work. I had never considered doing that. I immediately thought about the fishermen I knew who wrote, and decided to get a few people together to give it a try."{{cite web|url=http://www.patrickdixon.net/the-fisherpoets-gathering---coming-ashore-in-astoria.html|title=The FisherPoets Gathering - Coming Ashore in Astoria|website=patrick dixon, writer}}

In 2018, Empty Bowl a small independent Pacific Northwest press, initiated a new series focused on collected and selected poems from Pacific Northwest writers. The series was launched with Finn Wilcox's Too Late to Turn Back Now: Prose and Poems. Starck's Cathedrals and Parking Lots: Collected Poems is the second book in this series.{{cite web |title=Coming Soon: Cathedrals & Parking Lots: Collected Poems by Clemens Starck |url=https://www.emptybowl.org/store/cathedrals-parking-lots-collected-poems-by-clemens-starck |website=Empty Bowl |accessdate=October 30, 2018}}