Spring Break
Wright brings poetry to Konover
Eric Nigosanti
Issue date: 2/11/09 Section: Focus
A hush fell over the small audience at the Konover Auditorium Tuesday night as writer C.D. Wright took the stage to read her poem, "Floating Trees." The poem's themes of domestic life connected with the crowd, as did similar themes in other poems she read.
"I never heard anything like these before, but I really enjoyed the gardening one," said Tim Stobierski, a 4th-semester English and history double major.
Much of Wright's work is influenced by her upbringing in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains.
Over the course of her career, Wright has authored 12 books of poetry and prose and claimed a number of literature's top honors such as the Lanman Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Through the success of her efforts, Wright has taught at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and was later named the poet laureate for the state. Although her work has been described as abstract, no one word seems to be able to describe her work accurately.
Wright's latest book "Rising, Falling, Hovering" was strongly influenced by modern America, but during her reading Wright chose poems a little less topical. With subjects ranging from loneliness, Mexico, and gardening, Wright lived up to her reputation for variety. Humor even showed in some of her works like in the poem "Why Ralph Refuses To Dance."
Liz Hocking, a 6th-semester allied health major, said this poem was one of her favorites, especially with Wright's up-tempo reading of the poem, imitating the subject's racing thoughts.
"It was quirky and interesting, so I definitely enjoyed it," Hocking said.
Other poems had a more somber tone, like the ones that were meant to capture the loneliness of an inmate doing hard time. Sympathy gathered for the speakers of the poems with lines like "Turning on the hope machine is dangerous to contemplate," or "Here one re-dreams the one long dream of socialism."
Wright also read some of her newer, shorter poems, which she compared to "writing country music." These poems acted like snapshots of different people's lives or just creative literary games, like the poem "Poem Where Every Other Line is a Falsehood."
One of the most poignant lines Tuesday night was "Be nails. Be teeth. / Be lightning" from Wright's poem, "Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof." It seems she took her own advice, giving the audience writing that would leave a mark.
"I never heard anything like these before, but I really enjoyed the gardening one," said Tim Stobierski, a 4th-semester English and history double major.
Much of Wright's work is influenced by her upbringing in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains.
Over the course of her career, Wright has authored 12 books of poetry and prose and claimed a number of literature's top honors such as the Lanman Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Through the success of her efforts, Wright has taught at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and was later named the poet laureate for the state. Although her work has been described as abstract, no one word seems to be able to describe her work accurately.
Wright's latest book "Rising, Falling, Hovering" was strongly influenced by modern America, but during her reading Wright chose poems a little less topical. With subjects ranging from loneliness, Mexico, and gardening, Wright lived up to her reputation for variety. Humor even showed in some of her works like in the poem "Why Ralph Refuses To Dance."
Liz Hocking, a 6th-semester allied health major, said this poem was one of her favorites, especially with Wright's up-tempo reading of the poem, imitating the subject's racing thoughts.
"It was quirky and interesting, so I definitely enjoyed it," Hocking said.
Other poems had a more somber tone, like the ones that were meant to capture the loneliness of an inmate doing hard time. Sympathy gathered for the speakers of the poems with lines like "Turning on the hope machine is dangerous to contemplate," or "Here one re-dreams the one long dream of socialism."
Wright also read some of her newer, shorter poems, which she compared to "writing country music." These poems acted like snapshots of different people's lives or just creative literary games, like the poem "Poem Where Every Other Line is a Falsehood."
One of the most poignant lines Tuesday night was "Be nails. Be teeth. / Be lightning" from Wright's poem, "Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof." It seems she took her own advice, giving the audience writing that would leave a mark.
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