Distinctly Montana Magazine

82 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 4 He loved jazz and movies, watched his favorites over and over again. He got his B.A., then his M.A. in 1952. He forgot to pay the graduation fee. That same year, Hugo embraced a victory that for decades he'd feared he'd never ever get and that he'd never before came close to touching. Cough. Sitting to Hugo's right in that 1970 UM seminar room is an affable Montana student with that Beatles era shaggy hair & beard. Call him Nick. It's Nick's turn to read his new poem out loud in this room: A short saga about the narrator failing to move a woman he loves. No student in the room knew how hard Nick's poem stabbed Hugo. Hugo's autobiography and miles of other writings reveal, plead, confess that all through his growin' up years of junior high, high school, the War and beyond, he'd been terrified that he'd never find a woman who wanted to touch him, who wanted to have sex with him, who would see him and see love. That he didn't know what to say, to do, how to woo. Such hopeful dreams we of all genders share were his obsessive nightmares. Hugo won a victory over his fear of loneliness in 1952 with his first marriage to Barbara while he worked as a technical writer at Boeing in Seattle. He'd show his colleagues at work his poems. Get mixed reactions. Publish his first book A Run Of Jacks in '61. He and Barbara traveled to Italy in '63. Among his many poems from that era and beloved country he'd return to again and again is the poem he wrote upon learning there about JFK's assassination in Dallas. From '64 to '65, he held his first gig at UM as a visiting lecturer. Then he and Barbara divorced. Now in that 1970 seminar room, Hugo is single again as stu- dent Nick finishes reading his poem about forlorn love. Hugo asks us in that room what we think about Nick's poem. There are shrugs. Nods. A couple soft comments. No real sug- gestions. Nobody wants to face a firing squad when it's their poem's turn. Professor Hugo…Poet Hugo…Person Hugo at the head of the killing table makes a solid but soft comment on how Nick could improve his poem. "Huh," says Nick. "I'll have to go back and hit it on my type- writer." "What?!" shouts Hugo. His bulldog face projects horror. "You wrote your poem on a TYPEWRITER? No! No, no, no! Use a God- damn pencil! A Number 2 everyday pencil to write any, every poem! And don't erase what you think's a mistake! Scratch it out. And no pens either! You gotta feel the poem all the way down!" Hugo shakes his head. Shudders. Slumps. His expression reflects a cliché of that era about needing a drink. Alcohol was Hugo's dangerous obsession. He drank. Drank a lot. None of those seminar students saw it affect his performance as their teacher. In later years, after he'd kicked booze out of his life, he'd write about that struggle with depth and honesty. H E L T O N H E A R I N G . C O M • 4 0 6 - 5 8 6 - 0 9 1 4 B O Z E M A N • E N N I S • L I V I N G S T O N Will Helton, Au.D., FAAA, CCC-A American Board of Audiology Certified Doctor of Audiology Katelyn Thompson, Au.D., FAAA American Board of Audiology Certified Doctor of Audiology At Helton Hearing Care, your hearing health and your quality of life are our primary concern! American Board Certified Doctors of Audiology 2022-24 of B E S T M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F Y E A R S WO N W I N N E R ! Thank you for voting us Best Audiologist In Montana!

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