Oblivion Banjo

Starred review from October 15, 2019
Early in this exquisite assembly of selected poems from Wright's prodigious output, 16 collections between 1973 and 2014, this four-line gem appears in "Signature," from China Trace (1977): Don't wait for the snowfall from the dogwood tree. / Live like a huge rock covered with moss, / Rooted half under the earth / and anxious for no one. Wright's poems illuminate the subtleties and wonderment of our world in calm exaltations. "Cicada," from Chickamauga (1995), is a metaphysical examination of the self, of human longing, of our relationship with the earth: Fills us in ways we can't lay claim to, / Ways immense and without names, / husk burning like amber . Few poets can seize the passing of time as Wright does, and give it a shape that we might comprehend. In Caribou (2014), "Ancient of Days" paints an image: To stand like Turner's blobbed figurines / In a landscape we do not understand, / whatever and everything . One may lose track of self and time within Wright's radiant poems, trusting that this great poet, this holder of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and many other honors, might help us hear our own language, decipher our own feelings, as if for the first time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)