Word: wright
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...seems as though Wright has fallen into a poetic trap of his own creation. He explores the old dream of conquering the limits of language in “The Reader...
...this is a dangerous vision for a poet. Wright forgets that poetry’s virtue—its saving grace—is particularity. Readers can access poetry’s meaning only through the nuances of the text, through the heft and rhythm of a single word...
...poems in Franz Wright’s new collection, “God’s Silence,” should be profoundly moving. Wright grapples with depression and thoughts of suicide as he tries to sustain his saving connection with God. The winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Wright has a careful control of language; his line breaks are exquisite and his words never seem out of place...
...Wright relies too heavily on bluntly stated epiphanies, and his sincere lyrical tone soon becomes static. Striking images and strange insights are rare; most of the poems are predictably profound. The ending of “The Knowers” is typical: “dead leaves / come back as green / leaves: only / we / don’t return,” he writes. The smell of snow is a recurring motif in the poems, and there is a certain chilly, blandly poetic quality to the volume as a whole...
...didn’t have to be that way. At a few points, Wright reveals sharp humor and a delightful weirdness. The conclusion of “Od Hearing,” in which the narrator senses his estrangement from the people around him, is a striking blend of vulgarity and surrealism: “Kiss me/an easy death whispers: I want you to/come in my mouth—// Wolves/ with bright amethyst teeth smiling...