James Wright

An unexpected encounter with nature can be transformative.

Here are three poems by American poet James Wright (December 13, 1927 – March 25, 1980) whose poetry often deals with the disenfranchised, or the American outsider.

Wright suffered from depression and bipolar mood disorders and also battled alcoholism his entire life which was reflected in his poetry. He experienced several nervous breakdowns, was hospitalized, and was subjected to electroshock therapy.

Wright would go on to pen some of the most frequently anthologized poems of the 20th Century, including: "A Blessing," "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio," and "I Am a Sioux Indian Brave, He Said to Me in Minneapolis." His 1972 Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize.

Beginning

The moon drops one or two feathers into the fields.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moon's young, trying
Their wings.
Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow
Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone
Wholly, into the air.
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.

--James Wright

Poem from Above the River: The Complete Poems and Selected Prose. Copyright 1990 by James Wright [Wesleyan University Press].

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