Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Our new poet laureate

In case you missed it, Charles Wright has been named the US Poet Laureate. Here's an interesting interview and here's a poem, from The Wrong End of the Rainbow:


THE MINOR ART OF SELF-DEFENSE


Landscape was never a subject matter, it was a technique,
A method of measure,
                                    a scaffold for structuring.
I stole its silences, I stepped into its hue and cry.

Language was always the subject matter, the idea of God
The ghost that over my little world
Hovered, my mouthpiece for meaning,
                                                               my claw and bright beak...