Gary Margolis: I was Living in a Poem
Lines so plain I didn’t know, at first,
I was living in a poem.
James Wright: Trying to Pray
This time, I have left my body behind me, crying
In its dark thorns.
James Wright: Northern Pike
We prayed for the game warden’s blindness.
We prayed for the road home.
We ate the fish.
James Wright: A Blessing
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
James Wright: Depressed by a Book of Bad Poetry, I Walk Toward an Unused Pasture and Invite the Insects to Join Me
The old grasshoppers
Are tired, they leap heavily now,
Their thighs are burdened.
I want to hear them, they have clear sounds to make.
Michael Simms: Dogsbody to the Muse
Sometimes it’s painful to watch a group of poets trying to work a room as if they were politicians. The AWP conference, as the wag put it, is comprised of 15,000 introverts pretending to be extroverts.
Michael Simms: On the Spectrum with Garrison Keillor
Many of the issues people have had with Keillor’s behavior through the years may have been caused by his autism.
James Wright: Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
James Wright: To a Blossoming Pear Tree
Beautiful natural blossoms,
Pure delicate body,
You stand without trembling.
Little mist of fallen starlight,
Perfect, beyond my reach
Rick Campbell: Archeology
I have come a thousand miles for this. J&L’s ruins, a gravel plain on the Ohio’s west bank. There’s little left but an archeology of memory—smokestacks, ovens, foundry, smelter, slag. … Continue reading
James Wright: Hook
I stood on the street corner
In Minneapolis, lashed
This way and that.
Wind rose from some pit,
Hunting me.
James Wright: Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio
In the Shreve High football stadium, I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville, And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood, And the ruptured night … Continue reading
Audio: “A Blessing” by James Wright
Garrison Keillor reads James Wright’s iconic poem. James Arlington Wright (December 13, 1927 – March 25, 1980) first emerged on the literary scene in 1956 with The Green Wall, a collection … Continue reading
Michael Simms: What is Poetry For?
A few days ago, an old priest who was a colleague of my wife’s passed away, and Eva came home from work angry at the world. I was worried; Eva … Continue reading
