{"id":72550,"date":"2014-06-12T12:23:42","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T16:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=72550"},"modified":"2014-06-12T12:23:42","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T16:23:42","slug":"constant-freshness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/12\/constant-freshness\/","title":{"rendered":"Constant Freshness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wright\"<\/a>

A manuscript page from \u201cReading Rorty and Paul Celan One Morning in Early June,\u201d an unpublished\u2014or at least unpublished ca. 1989\u2014poem by Charles Wright.<\/p><\/div>\n

Congratulations to Charles Wright, who was announced today as America\u2019s next poet laureate. James Billington, the librarian of Congress, said that Wright\u2019s poems have \u201can infinite array of beautiful words reflected with constant freshness\u201d and commended his \u201ccombination of literary elegance and genuine humility\u2014it\u2019s just the rare alchemy of a great poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright has received, as the Times<\/em> notes<\/a>, \u201cjust about every other honor in the poetry world, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bollingen Prize and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Paris Review<\/a><\/em> interviewed Charles Wright in 1989<\/a> for the Art of Poetry series; he said of the form,\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

There seem to me to be certain absolutes in whatever field of endeavor one is in. In business and banking they may be availability and convertibility, security and safekeeping, minimal loss and steady, incremental accession. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that way in poetry, though such values will get you to temporary high places. Brilliance is what you reach for, language that has a life of its own, seriousness of subject matter beyond the momentary gasp and glitter, a willingness to take on what\u2019s difficult and beautiful, a willingness to be different and abstract, a willingness to put on the hair shirt and go into the desert and sit still, and listen hard, and write it down, and tell no one.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re happy to have published six of Wright\u2019s poems in our Summer 2008 issue<\/a>. Here\u2019s one of them, \u201cIn Memory of the Natural World\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n

Four ducks on the pond tonight, the fifth one MIA.
A fly, a smaller than normal fly,
Is mapping his way through sun-strikes across my window.<\/p>\n

Behind him, as though at attention,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the pine trees hold their breaths.
The fly\u2019s real, the trees are real,
And the ducks.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But the glass is artificial, and it\u2019s on fire.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We wish Wright all the best in his new role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Charles Wright, who was announced today as America\u2019s next poet laureate. James Billington, the librarian of Congress, said that Wright\u2019s poems have \u201can infinite array of beautiful words reflected with constant freshness\u201d and commended his \u201ccombination of literary elegance and genuine humility\u2014it\u2019s just the rare alchemy of a great poet.\u201d Wright has received, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[9205,1898,1132,348,165,14273],"class_list":["post-72550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","tag-art-of-poetry","tag-charles-wright","tag-interviews","tag-poet-laureate","tag-poetry","tag-summer-2008"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCongratulations to Charles Wright, Our Next Poet Laureate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 12, 2014 \u2013 Congratulations to Charles Wright, who was announced today as America\u2019s next poet laureate. 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