A Poet Reflects

“If you have a story to tell, tell it; if you have a song to sing, sing it.  But don’t mistake narrative for lyric, don’t mistake prose for poetry.”

—Charles Wright, from “Bytes and Pieces” in Quarter Notes: Improvisations and Interviews (The University of Michigan Press, 1998)

“The Map of Poetry goes something like this: There’s a long, flat plain made up of good writing, clarity, and emotional insight. Beyond that rises the Great Wall of Language.  
Beyond that lies the Void.”

—Charles Wright, from “Bytes and Pieces” in Quater Notes: Improvisations and Interviews (University of Michigan Press, 1998), Poet on Poetry Series

“The past is the one mirror that never releases its images.  Layer and overlay, year after year, wherever you look, however you look, whenever you look, it’s always your own face you see there.  All those years, and it’s still your own face.”

—Charles Wright, from “Bytes and Pieces” in Quarter Notes: Improvisations and Interviews (The University of Michigan Press, 1998)

“The New Formalists have a problem.  They think, for the most part, that the poem fits the form.  The Old Formalists knew better—they knew the form had to fit the poem.  Big difference.

—Charles Wright, from “Bytes and Pieces” in Quarter Notes: Improvisations and Interviews (The University of Michigan Press, 1998)