“Now you’re walking down to the shore/to watch the last blues fading on the waves.”

Edward Hirsch comes to JSC on Nov. 5, closing the 2012 Fall Author Series. Hirsch will read his poetry in the Stearns Performance Space at 4 p.m.

Hirsch’s body of work spans 35 years. He’s the author of seven poetry collections and four non-fiction books on poetry.

This includes the bestselling “How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry,” which begins: “Read a poem to yourself in the middle of the night. Turn on a single lamp and read it while you’re alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone sleeps next to you. Say it over to yourself in a place where silence reigns and the din of culture – the constant buzzing noise that surrounds you – has momentarily stopped. This poem has come from a great distance to find you.”

Hirsch comes from Chicago. He’s the fourth president of the Guggenheim Foundation, which offers fellowships to artists and scholars researching artistic fields. He received a Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. The Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, a Pablo Neruda Presidential Medal of Honor, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature are among Hirsch’s achievements.

“He is an important contemporary voice in poetry, as well as a much-loved mentor and teacher to many poets,” said JSC Assistant Professor of Writing and Literature Elizabeth Powell. Powell studied with Hirsch.

Hirsch has taught at Wayne State University and the University of Houston.