the poem is one in which the poet/speaker consid-
ers two worlds: the world of his mind that revolves
around words, and the world of concrete things
that surrounds his backyard. These two become
intertwined in his perception. In the following dis-
cussion, each stanza is separately numbered start-
ing with its first line as line 1.Stanza 1
In the sentence that continues across lines 1 and 2,
Wright tells the reader that the secrets are present
and the light has returned, but the reader has no
idea what those secrets might be or what kind of
light has returned. These lines remain to be inter-
preted as the poem develops. The continuation of
a sentence across two lines is not unusual, but
Wright’s style of putting the second line in a
dropped position, that is, not flush left but
indented so that the line is mostly to the right,
helps to set off what is said in the second line
and make it distinct from the rest of the sentence.
In lines 3 and 4, the speaker tells the reader
that the word ‘‘remember’’ touches his hand but
he shakes it off. ‘‘Remember’’ is emphasized with
italics to alert the reader to its importance. The
use of personification to suggest that a word can
touch a person’s hand tells the reader to expect
that there will be a dimension other than reality
involved in the poem. What is on his mind
quickly shifts to something in the real world—
the flight of turkey buzzards. To this point, the
poem has a meditative feel, so the sudden intro-
duction of buzzards is a jolt. Buzzards are ugly
and their reputation for feasting on carcasses
lends foreboding to the poem, not necessarily
lessened by the description of their expert flight
across a cloudy sky in lines 4 and 5.
Line 6 brings the reader back to the words
that are on the poet’s mind; little names that sink
down from the weight of what is invisible. Line 7
insists that no one will speak these words; no one
will try to work with them and make them beau-
tiful. It is as if words are burdened with so many
denotative and connotative meanings that they
need a writer to lighten their load by choosing
one so they can dispose of the rest. Words
depend on the writer to make something sensi-
ble, something organized out of their disparate
meanings. To emphasize the sinking down,
Wright uses alliteration with the repeated initial
sound ofw-in line 7, conveying that these words
require the reader to slow down, as if weighted.
Thew-sound is used again in line 8 with theMEDIA
ADAPTATIONS Poets.org sells a CD (made available in
1997) of Charles Wright reading twenty
poems from his booksChickamaugaand
Appalachia, and Adrienne Rich reading a
selection from her works. The eighty-two-
minute CD was recorded on the night in
1996 when Wright won the Lenore Marshall
Prize and Rich won the Wallace Stevens
Award.
A print transcription of an interview of
Charles Wright by Elizabeth Farnsworth
for theJim Lehrer NewsHouron PBS is
available online. The interview was recorded
on April 15, 1998, in response to Wright’s
receiving the Pulitzer Prize that year and
coversBlack Zodiac, Wright’s career, and
his thoughts on poetry. A Real Audio ver-
sion of the interview is available.
The Poetry Foundation has made available
online a series of recordings calledEssential
American Poets. The poets were selected in
2006 by poet laureate Donald Hall, and each
poet reads his or her own works. Included in
this group of important American poets,
Charles Wright made his recording in 2008
in a studio in Charlottesville, Virginia. He
reads: ‘‘Spider Crystal Ascension,’’ ‘‘Stone
Canyon Nocturne,’’ ‘‘Clear Night,’’ ‘‘A
Short History of the Shadow,’’ and ‘‘Bed-
time Story.’’ The podcast can be found
online.
The Library of Congress made a sixty-two-
minute video of Charles Wright and Mark
Strand reading their poetry on April 24,
- It is available online.
Poets.org sells theAcademy of American
Poets Audio Archive Anthology, Volume I,
which is a collection of historic recordings of
public readings by various authors over a
forty-year time period. Included is Charles
Wright reading the introduction to ‘‘It’s
Turtles All the Way Down.’’ This archive
anthology may also be available from ven-
dors such as Amazon.com.
Words Are the Diminution of All Things