Walking to Martha's Vineyard

Rating:
Summary: Franz Wright is to James Wright . . .
Review: as Peter Fonda is to Henry Fonda, the same half-coherent resentment, the same radiance as if blessed from beyond this planet by the great gifts of the father transmuted by a golden light, and a kind of pharmacological savvy and sadness that comes with dealing with heritage the American way. It's not easy being the son of a powerful father, and taking up his trade puts added stress on the relationship. These metaphors for the distance between the First and Second Persons of the Trinity resonate throughout F. Wright's poetry as they do in Spencer's Mountain or Tammy and the Doctor. Everywhere there is pain, everywhere promise.

Rating:
Summary: the metaphysical conceit
Review: Franz Wright appear to have a great deal of natural talent (he is the son of James Wright, after all), but there's something bluff about the poems themselves. It's as though they have to be spoken in a whisper to be believable. Any poem that can't be read in a full voice without laughing is taking itself way too seriously. And that was my problem anyway with this collection.

Rating:
Summary: Great deal of natural talent
Review: Franz Wright appears to have a great deal of natural talent, indeed. There's nothing bluff about the poems. The book is very memorable. The poems are direct, in a magical way. They aim for, and attain a clarity that saves us, gives us grace. One wants to call up one's friends and read the poems over the phone. They are that believable. Read the poem called "P.S." in the bookstore and you will want to buy this book. It is the book to be grateful for.

Rating:
Summary: Saying what it takes...
Review: Franz Wright deserves the Pulitzer Prize, and I'm humbly amazed that he actually got it - the highest award in Western civilization literature. His work teaches us how to listen, and even how to think another way... For some, at least to confirm what our middle-of-the-night voices try to say to our fears.

Here, he fulfills the promise tacitly made in his earlier "The Beforelife." Here, he comes inhabiting the words he sought when he incomparably translated the unknown works of Rilke. Here, he finally takes his place I think among the kindred spirits of Rilke, Rumi, and others less-well-known. A mystic poet who can write as if he's living next door. Who doesn't preach, who doesn't so much open our own doors as show us how he opens his. The art is in that; the art is knowing that's enough. A highly distilled essence.

It's easily read; deceptively so, I think. You might want light reading; this is not the book. You might want platitudes, attitudes of cheer. Buy yourself a cup of cocoa instead. You may not be ready for this. That's all right; someday, you will be.

Poetry conducts a Rorschach test on readers, hearers. The poem is *not* the thing, is not the thing you think it is - what you think it is, is really only one of the voices in your head come home to roost. You can tell by the feathers. You can tell by who's laughing.

If you can give yourself the time, give yourself a poem or two from this collection. See what you hear in it. I imagine, for some of us, it could be the words unlocking compassion, as opposed to love, as opposed to sentiment. His work in its spareness shows the superfluity of words, how we use them to amuse us. His work makes the poetry of emotion obvious, banal.

It could be the smallest of voices - just another poet - saying what it takes.

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: Franz Wright is a poet of great pathos, but also blissful transendance, & a candid sense of humor. This through his humility shines all the more resplendantly. He is a poet who is very easy to relate to in comfortable ways; reading this book you might feel like these poems are a conversation you're having over tea with him about the themes of this book. This book is a small savior to me; I relate to his voice in ways that feel very personal & very important.

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: Franz Wright is a poet of great pathos, but also blissful transendance, & a candid sense of humor. This through his humility shines all the more resplendantly. He is a poet who is very easy to relate to in comfortable ways; reading this book you might feel like these poems are a conversation you're having over tea with him about the themes of this book. This book is a small savior to me; I relate to his voice in ways that feel very personal & very important.

Rating:
Summary: Whisper These Great Poems
Review: Some poems are meant to be read in a whisper, to be articulated internally, inside the mind's ear. What is lovely about Wright's poetry is its trust in the strength of old-fashion free verse, and its trust in a mature reader. In addition, it was a pleasure, for once, to read an open-hearted and honestly emotional book of poems. The fact that he is James Wright's son does add weight to the work, but who cares? In this case it just helps us to know the father who is being addressed, adding to our sense that he could be our father, too (at least for those of us who love the work of James Wright.)

Rating:
Summary: Walking To Martha's Vineyard
Review: The poems here are heartbreaking and worthy of reading every day. Franz Wright has been down as low as one can go, and he reports back to the world with the grace and wonder of being alive, seeing evidence of spiritual rebirth all around him, or as he writes in the opening poem, "There is nothing but." May he continue to live well.

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, Haunting and Incredibly Moving
Review: This is a fascinating and engaging collection of poems. I have never read Franz Wright before, but after this, I think I just might. His poems are decidedly unconventional, communicating a wide variety of emotions.

There is a level of emotional dynamism and dialectic at work in Wright's poetry that I find intriguing. On the one hand he refelcts pointedly on the dregs of emtional pain and brokenness. On the other hand there are constant rays of hope embodied in themes of resurrection, renewal and restoration.

Beyond the dialectic of despair and hope, there are also elements of these poems that are utterly hilarious (I can't tell you ho glad I am to have the word 'kindersluts' added to my vocabular).

This definately deserved to win the Pulitzer prize. It is a fascinating collection of poems from a talented and honest poet. Highly recommended.