The World of the Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980-1990

This collection begins with "Homage to Paul Cezanne," one of Wright's most accessible poems and the first poem I would pick to teach students about metaphor. It begins: The dead are a cadmium blue. We spread them with palette knives in broad blocks and planes. We layer them stroke by stroke In steps and ascending mass, in verticals raised from the earth. We choose, and layer them in, Blue and a blue and a breath, Circle and smudge, cross-beak and buttonhook, We layer them in. We squint hard and terrace them line by line. You can see in this passage the seeds of the lulling rhythm, like walking meditation, that has become Wright's signature: "Blue and a blue and a breath." In the fifteen years since this book was issued, Wright has refined his technique to become master of the minimalist nature lyric; this relatively early collection showcases the transition from poet to genius as the author gropes for and finds his music. Wright's work is among the best literature to come out of the South this century, and he is only improving with time. I can only assume that the entire Appalachian Book of the Dead series will be reprinted in one gigantic tome sometime in the next decade or two. In the meantime, if you can't afford to buy each of his books now, springing for this one is a great place to start.

This collection of poems is truly beautiful. Some of the material in here is accessible to anyone while some of it is more essoteric. Being a collection, it covers a wide range of work, some of which I like more than others. When Wright succeeds, though, he does so more brilliantly than any other contemporary poet I know of.