James Wright Poems (37 Poems)
The Lambs on the Boulder (James Wright Poems)
I hear that the Commune di Padova has an exhibition of master- pieces from Giotto to Mantegna. Giotto is the master of angels, and Mantegna is the master of the dead Christ, one of the few human beings who seems … Continue reading
Sappho (James Wright Poems)
The twilight falls; I soften the dusting feathers,And clean again.The house has lain and moldered for three days.The windows smeared with rain, the curtains torn,The mice come in,The kitchen blown with cold. I keep the house, and say no words. … Continue reading
A Secret Gratitude (James Wright Poems)
1She cleaned house, and then lay down longOn the long stair. On one of those cold white wingsThat the strange fowl provide for us like one hillside of the sea,That cautery of snow that blinds us,Pitiless light,One winter afternoonFair near … Continue reading
The Minneapolis Poem (James Wright Poems)
to John Logan 1I wonder how many old men last winterHungry and frightened by namelessness prowledThe Mississippi shoreLashed blind by the wind, dreamingOf suicide in the river.The police remove their cadavers by daybreakAnd turn them in somewhere.Where?How does the city … Continue reading
Bologna: A Poem About Gold (James Wright Poems)
Give me this time, my first and severe Italian, a poem about gold, The left corners of eyes, and the heavy Night of the locomotives that brought me here, And the heavy wine in the old green body, The glass … Continue reading
A Way To Make A Living (James Wright Poems)
From an epigram by Plato When I was a boy, a relativeAsked for me a jobAt the Weeks Cemetery.Think of all I couldHave raised that summer,That money, and meLiving at home,Fattening and gettingReady to live my lifeOut on my knees, … Continue reading
A Mad Fight Song For William S. Carpenter, 1966 (James Wright Poems)
Varus, varus, gib mir meine Legionen wieder Quick on my feet in those Novembers of my loneliness,I tossed a short pass,Almost the instant I got the ball, right over the headOf Barrel Terry before he knocked me cold. When I … Continue reading
You And I Saw Hawks Exchanging The Prey (James Wright Poems)
They did the deed of darknessIn their own mid-light. He plucked a gray field mouseSuddenly in the wind. The small dead fly aliveHelplessly in his beak, His cold pride, helpless.All she receives is life. They are terrified. They touch.Life is … Continue reading
Youth (James Wright Poems)
Strange bird,His song remains secret.He worked too hard to read books.He never heard how Sherwood AndersonGot out of it, and fled to Chicago, furious to free himselfFrom his hatred of factories.My father toiled fifty yearsAt Hazel-Atlas Glass,Caught among girders that … Continue reading
The Last Pieta, in Florence (James Wright Poems)
The whole city Is stone, even Where stone Doesn’t belong. What is that old Man’s public face Doing sorrowing, Secretly a little, A little above and A little back from What is that stone Doing sorrowingWhere stoneDoesn’t belong? (James Wright)
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