Chickamauga

his verse would look and sound rather like the lines written by Charles Wright, since here one finds powerful meditations on the thrown-ness of existence; on the way we shape and are shaped by forces and impulses that swirl and rage within and without us; on the depths as well as heights of temporality; and on the fact that there is something when there could have been nothing at all. For some reason, I find myself thinking of the great Welsh poet, RS Thomas, whenever I pause and read Wright. That's probably unfair, but their sense that God is in the silences between noise, in the fissure between what our mind can verify and the demands that are made on our soul -- these things bring them together, at least in my mind. This is a fine collection of poems.

Charles Wright's Chickamauga is an outstanding collection of poetry. It is both very modern and deeply traditional in its feelings with parallels to Chinese poetry and to the work of Wallace Stevens. The poems use landscape and memory of his Italian years to link us to the basic human experiences of life: ageing, loss etc. They seem a great step forward from his previous books, like the Zone Jounals and China Traces, and at least equal to his most recent book Black Zodiac. I found it both beautiful and deeply moving.

Charles Wright`s book of poems is the most moving book of poetry I have read in a long time.He speaks to the soul as well as the heart.My only problem with Charles Wright is he doesn't have any other books out that I can find.Thanks for an enjoyable night of reading your book.I would of given a ten but the book was to short.