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'Monumental'
Collection
of Poet Jay Wright's
Work Praised
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Don Usner |
Among contemporary poets, Jay Wright's name is not widely recognized,
even by those who profess to regularly read poetry.
Perhaps that will change with the laudatory comments by poet and critic
John Hollander in a recent Sunday New York Times review of a book of Wright's
collected poems.
The review starts out: ''Jay Wright is a brilliant and original poet,
difficult and allusive, beating his own unpredictable path through a variety
of terrains.''
Having heard Wright read his poetry three times in this area - once at
the now departed Wooton's book store in Amherst, another time at New Africa
House at UMass and finally in the Browsing Room at Neilson Library at
Smith College, I can testify that Hollander's use of the word ''allusive''
is right on.
Wright's images and metaphors are rooted in the Southwest, in Mexico and
the Spanish language, in the African experience, in jazz music and especially
in imagination and language.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should report that I first got to
know about Jay Wright when he and his wife Lois dropped by my book store
several years ago while they were on their way from their home in rural
New Hampshire to New York City. That encounter developed into a friendship,
not at all based on my knowledge or talent for poetry. But we are contemporaries
and we have been in touch from time to time since then - through their
visits here, phone calls, and the exchange of friendly notes.
Often our conversations would return to a time when as a young man he
played professional baseball as a catcher for teams in the Southwest and
Pacific Coast League, as my own father had played minor league ball in
Oklahoma many years ago.
Despite various foundation grants, including a MacArthur award, and stints
teaching at colleges and universities, Wright has preferred to devote
himself and his energies to his poetry and playwrighting. Last fall Jay
Wright was the recipient of a $50,000 literary award given by the Lannan
Foundation which recognizes authors of what it judges to be ''exceptional''
works of poetry and prose. Still, it has been a struggle.
Thus, it has to be a source of enormous satisfaction for Jay and Lois
to finally witness the publication of what Hollander describes as a ''monumental
new complete collection.'' The volume is titled ''Transfigurations, Collected
Poems by Jay Wright.'' It is published by the Louisiana State University
Press.
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