The Poet, the Lion, Talking Pictures, El Farolito, a Wedding in St. Roch, the Big Box Store, the Warp in the Mirror, Spring, Midnights, Fire & All | C.D. Wright
I agree, I propose to keep looking.
Wright’s book is an ode to the poetic form. An explanation, expression, and invitation into the world of poetry and its poets, both in their individuality and in their collective conscience. I appreciated how her exploration was fed by other poet’s similar experiences, and their willingness to both ask and answer the same questions. It brought the large intimidating world of poetry into sizable consumption for me, because I began to learn so many names, and their words, alongside Wright’s own distinct perception. She writes a narrative, with some chapters only a paragraph long, italicized, as though she were whispering or slowing down her cadence to create an addendum. These my mind remembers as an important moment of truth requiring its own page. There were many sections where I felt intellectually stuck. Connecting to the content, to the greater role of poetry, which has in my own small bubble been a small one, was challenging. But it is for that reason alone, and this passage below, that I’ve been inspired to delve a little deeper into the voices of our world’s poets. I realized all of the underlined words I marked are a beginning of a subset of delights…poetic delights.
It never ends, and Lord, am I grateful for it.
On a Wall in Whitechapel I saw it written:
I propose to keeping looking. I propose
we all keep looking. I propose
it is an unyielding imperative for the poet to do so.
[Book of Delights p. 75 | No. 24 Umbrella in the Cafe]