Notes Toward an Article about Charles Wright

“Now the Fathers were not even sufficiently concerned with the nature of this rest to speak of it in these terms, except very rarely, as did St. Anthony, when he remarked that ‘the prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer realizes himself or the fact that he is praying.’ And this was said casually, in passing. For the rest, the Fathers steered clear of everything lofty, everything esoteric, everything theoretical or difficult to understand. That is to say, they refused to talk about such things. And for that matter they were not willing to talk about anything else, even about the truths of Christian faith, which accounts for the laconic quality of these sayings.” (9) ~ from the intro to the Cloud of Unkowing…

Certainly there’s a connection between these laconic sayings and the sayings of Charles Wright…

The approach, or delivery.

Inching one’s way into spirituality. Sliding, doing the half step. This is [to be] as much an essay about poetry as it is about man, a man inching his way toward his own spirituality, and doing it in poems…a man teaching others how to write poems…his approach, or way…his way of shuffling.

Speaking out of the corner of one’s mouth. In order to glance a rip shot off the truth…it’s the only way to get at the truth…you must be moving along with it. You can’t stand still and expect to hit a moving target…something like that…Zen Bhuddists…surprised by Enlightenment…snuck up on their students…Koans break into our minds by surprising us, by taking unique angles…All of Wright’s poetry works this way, a half muttered music glancing off the landscape, or the object of devotion. His teaching was the same.

Wright’s sayings from a class a long, long time ago:

• Every stanza needs to be one line less.
• Some stanzas need to be two lines less.
• Stick to the event.
• Come out of the blocks fast, and if not fast, at least graceful.
• Essence is not all but almost all.
• Allow the readers to invent the narratives themselves.
• Underwrite the narrative, beneath the cargo of images.
• Let the detail ignite the imagination.
• Think about the line length, the way it looks on the page.
• When you tie the knot, make sure it is the most interesting way.
• Innuendo vs. Inflection.
• Say what you need to say to get to the end of the poem.
• Understatement is key.
• Intensity, scrutiny, discipline.
• Poetry as hidden language, as language inside of language.
• The poem in itself could just be talking to itself: images, echoes, calls, returns.
• Mostly we over-elaborate the explanatory moment.
• Remember, people who read poems are always looking for more than is there.
• It’s more important what you leave out than what you leave in (says Hemingway).
• The reader’s unraveling the story will usually be more interesting than your own explanations.
• Don’t overwrite.
• Everybody has his own level of minimalism.
• If you can describe something accurately and precisely and it’s the right thing, then you have done it.
• Charles Bronson’s real name is Charles Bushinski (pair this with the quote about fasting and writing…two of the only
things Charles ever wrote on the board.)
• Free verse: you can’t just chop up the prose.
• Labor, listen (Pound)
• The Cantos: a great wreck on the shore of human ambition.
• Keep the metrical contract, the rhythm the same from the outset.
• Keep the reader happy.
• The close you adhere to how you start out, the better off you’ll be.
• Think about end stop vs. enjambment: you don’t want to bother the reader with too many stops.
• All good poems are made up of good details.
• All great poems are made up of great details.
• But the details have to add up to something more, make them come together in some whole.
• If you’re going to rhyme, it’s best to keep the lines longer (4 stresses instead of 3)
• Think of it as a riff, as a line of jazz.
• Often all you need of narrative in a poem is the title unless the poem is a narrative…then you only need a few words.
• To be asyntactical, use short lines to create rhythm.
• Williams: the flower was just there to write a poem about.
• Get at the significance of the experience.
• Writer as a force of nature: think about it.
• Images should move down the page.
• Listen to the sound the poem makes.
• How is the speaker changed by the end of the poem?
• Words take on a greater weight in poems.
• Immitative fallacy: when you describe something boring or uncomfortable, don’t be boring or uncomfortable.