Deepstep Come ShiningRebellious and fiercely lyrical, the poems of C.D. Wright incorporate elements of disjunction and odd juxtaposition in their exploration of unfolding context. "In my book," she writes, "poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so." C.D. Wright was born and raised in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. She has received numerous awards for her work, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation. She teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island. "Expertly elliptical phrasings, and an uncounterfeitable, generous feel for real people, bodies and places, have lately made Wright one of America's oddest, best and most appealing poets. Her tenth book consists of a single long poem whose sentences, segments and prose-blocks weave loosely around and about, and grow out of, a road trip through the rural South. Clipped twangs, lyrical ‘goblets of magnolialight,’ and recurrent, mysterious, semi-allegorical figures like ‘the snakeman’ and ‘the boneman’ share space with place names, lexicographies, exhortations and wacky graffiti (‘God is Louise’).… cherish Wright's latest ‘once-and-for-all thing, opaque and revelatory, ceaselessly burning.’"—Publishers Weekly "For me, C.D. Wright's poetry is river gold. 'Love whatever flows.' Her language is on the page half pulled out of earth and rivers—still holding onto the truth of the elements. I love her voice and pitch and the long snaky arms of her language that is willing to hold everything—human and angry and beautiful."—Michael Ondaatje "C.D. Wright is entirely her own poet, a true original."—The Gettysburg Review |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Arkansas baby big-balled boogie birds Bite bleaching their teeth blind blue Blur bobcat Boiled peanuts boneman bones bulb Casa Blanca lilies ceaselessly chairs Chicken love chlorophyll clotheslines Cloud’s Fly color Coming soon cool Copper Canyon Press Corner of Hamlet Deborah Luster Deepstep come shining eye offend thee feel WHOLES Fiddle contest Forrest Gander gate to enter Georgia Ghost hair glass eyes glory cloud Hamlet and Bridges hung Icehouse irises Kurosawa Leave it Love light-bearing paths little farther live look Louise Love it Leave Lumiere brothers Milledgeville mirror Mmmhmm Motel mute swan mystery needs love never ocularist offend thee pluck Oncet onion painter Pattycake peahens Pencils Poetry Poke pool Pulltight Road rain or shine retina Ride smart ball Smoke snakeman syphilis there’s Thrasher tomato touch that dial trees unlike night Veals of Deepstep Vidalia Vidalia onion wall Watch What’s that spot young