Deepstep Come Shining

by C.D. Wright

Rebellious and fiercely lyrical, the poems of C.D. Wright incorporate elements of disjunction and odd juxtaposition in their exploration of unfolding context. "In my book," she writes, "poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so."

Genres: Poetry, Womens, Literature

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

C. D. Wright was born in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She earned a BA in French from Memphis State College (now the University of Memphis) in 1971 and briefly attended law school before leaving to pursue an MFA from the University of Arkansas, which she received in 1976. Her poetry thesis was titled Alla Breve Loving.

In 1977 the publishing company founded by Frank Stanford, Lost Roads Publishers, published Wright's first collection, Room Rented by A Single Woman. After Stanford died in 1978, Wright took over Lost Roads, continuing the mission of publishing new poets and starting the practice of publishing translations. In 1979, she moved to San Francisco, where she met poet Forrest Gander. Wright and Gander married in 1983 and had a son, Brecht, and co-edited Lost Roads until 2005.

In 1981, Wright lived in Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico and completed her third book of poems, Translation of the Gospel Back into Tongues. In 1983 she moved to Providence, Rhode Island to teach writing at Brown University as the Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English. In 2013,

C.D. Wright died on January 12, 2016 at the age of 67 in Barrington, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

In C.D. Wright’s book-length poem Deepstep Come Shining, the eye and the ear are center. In the book, the result of a road trip taken with photographer Deborah Luster through Georgia and the Carolinas, the speaker of the poem is the “hand of the selenographer, mapper of lost roads.” Wright’s poem is both a travelogue and a language-logue as she oscillates between verbal registers.

Deepstep Come Shining is in perpetual motion—-both in terms of literal mobility as represented by the reoccurring image of the car, and in terms of verbal flux. There is a sense of flickering or blinking created by the recurring motif of the eye and the camera’s shutter effect, but also mimicked by the use of paratactic constructions and her heavy use of the period to create plural caesurae in each line. This constant stop and go motion replicates the eye and camera’s continual shutter motion. The poem is simultaneously a literal and metaphorical road trip, and like the automobile passing through various country and townscapes, the mind also collects the passing information of different flora and fauna and their various nomenclatures. She travels as high speed, calibrating voices and objects found along the road, declaring to the reader “place yourself inside the damage.” Like her mother who was a court reporter and to whom she dedicates the poem to, C.D. Wright acts as a stenographer, skilled in the transcription of testimony. Her poem becomes the transcription of all the voices caught briefly by the ear of the car’s window.

Engaging in an aphoristic style of writing, her constructions tend to be paratactic which contribute to their staccato rhythms: “Everyone in their car needs love. Car love. Meat love. Money love. Pass with care.” Repetitions and lists are some of her modes, very much in the manner of Whitman’s anaphoric catalogs of pattern making as she weaves the various strands of images and ideas together, asking without the question mark:

What are you going to do when our lamps are gone out.
What are you going to do.
What are you going to do when you come to the crossroad.

She is wonderful at capturing the vernacular of the South (“in this one stoplight town,” “no more boiled peanuts for me,” and “bite me you big-balled boogie man”), as well as creating kennings like “magnolialight”, “onionlight,” the titular “deepstep” and “eyeshine”: the poem becomes a palimpsest of dialects and places. Or, similar to the idea of the palimpsest, is the sudarium that she employs in her poem: “Lead me to the river with your mirror. / Unwrap the sudarium from my face”. The speaker’s identity contains multiple reflections and imprints which are under spiritual restoration via the physical and figurative journeys that occur in the poem; hers is a variable identity, an expansive identity in the mode of Whitman, an identity of hybridity. She opens her book with the following epigraph as a way of guiding the reader through the poem:

LEAR: ...you see how this world goes.
GLOUCESTER: I see it feelingly.

This synesthesia (as well as kinesthesia) of seeing feelingly is the method through which we our asked to wind ourselves through this book, and the manner in which C.D. Wright’s prismatic selves are threaded together in an empathetic and sensual collection of voices and places, in which she suggests to the reader, “let’s take this trip together.” And we definitely want to.

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this I was immediately going to give it 4 stars because I knew it was great, but I (not the book) was obviously lacking something and therefore, couldn't give it a 5, because I didn't know what that something was. However, this is a book-length poem broken into several parts. In fact, this is the only book-length poem I've bought into, not that I've read many. But the thing I really wanted to say about this book is that it reminded me very much of William Faulkner's writing. Not just the stream-of-consciousness, but the southern culture, as well. I really got quite a bit out of this.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckle up, we're going on a road trip through the Ozarks of the mind. On the dial are many stations: on some you'll hear the vernacular, others the academic, King Lear, Kurosawa, Newton, and the boneman are djs; they promise to play synesthesia and static. We will drive right through question marks without stop or signage. The car might lurch a bit as it navigates through periods. There's a lot of white space to look out at. But, I promise, we will arrive somewhere at the end, as the miles and the selves accumulate.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

'There are enough signs. Of the lack of tenderness in the world. And yet. And yet. All you have to do is ask. Anyone here can extol the virtues of an onion. Where to get barbecue minced, pulled, or chopped. The hour of the day they have known the thorn of love.'

(p29)

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"O your giant TV. Do you watch much. What is there to watch. This is the time to see and feel WHOLES. / Blur in. Blur out."

[jada alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 // "There are enough signs. Of the lack of tenderness in the world. And yet. And yet. All you have to do is ask. Anyone here can extol the virtues of an onion. Where to get barbecue minced, pulled, or chopped. The hour of the day they have known the thorn of love."

truly amazing. this is my first CD Wright book and i am so grateful. i flew through this book, it's definitely something you finish in a sitting. this book, like some of the best ones, is a reminder of the possibilities of poetry. so invigorating and beautiful.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the hither world I offer a once-and-for-all thing, opaque and revelatory, ceaselessly burning."

Love the sense language of this poem, and the echoes of words and images that repeat and loop back on each other. Eyes, cars, the boneman, Louise, all kinds of light and love, and Poetry, Georgia. I'm not sure I 100% "got it" but I'm not sure I 100% needed to to enjoy it.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There are enough signs. Of the lack of tenderness in the
world. And yet. And yet. All you have to do is ask. Anyone
here can extol the virtues of an onion. Where to get barbecue
minced, pulled, or chopped. The hour of the day they have
known the thorn of love."

[Laura T]

Holy shit? A fact is a fact. Lore is lore. And drunk is drunk.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can’t believe it took me so long to read this book

[Gary McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap is this book amazing. Been absolutely absorbed in it for the last couple days. I met C.D. at AWP and she signed the book, and I meant to read it right away because of all the hype it has received from the likes of AC, TT, ZS, etc, but I never read it until now.

It will be a huge help, too. The ms I'm working on is a book-length poem with in-between lil prose pieces and lists and anecdotes. Wright's form in this book is similar to what I'm trying to do... though her book is much more narrative in a straight-forward kind of way whereas mine is associatively narrative.... I hope.

[Tam (is a cryptid) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is completely fantastic. It is so fluid, a complete journey through visuals and abstract imagery. Don't expect to see this story with your eyes, but rather feel it out with your senses. It may seem very free form at times but if you follow the repeated imagery carefully and pay close attention to Wright's clues, it really unfolds quite nicely.

[Charmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to go back now and re-read Tremble, which I just didn't connect with. I found Deepstep amazing, the kind of book that stays with you after you've closed the cover. It's much more apparant in this work the strong influence that Stanford had/has on Wright's writing. Now I need to pick up some of her other books.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, although containing some wonderfully poetic lines and interesting ideas, just didn't "grab" me very much. I have read much better work from C.D. Wright. However, I do think she is a gutsy poet in trying something like this book-length imagistic poem. Just not my "thang".

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't been so excited about a book of poetry in a while. I don't know why I never read C.D. Wright before this. What uniquely wrought concentrated and potent language. I love this book. Now I have to catch up and read all the others.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and intriguing, this book is so deftly braided, it opens up possibilities. I'm enamored.

["Greg Adkins" · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck me, how had I never read this book before?

[Kasey Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I both loved this book and felt utterly lost at points, so I struggled with deciding what to rate it. The thing that solidified my choice of fives stars was: I can hear this book being read. The author’s voice is so strong and unique, that I not only can visualize what is happening throughout the story but I feel like I am there.

That is a masterful and ambitious book-length poem. Despite feeling lost — both due to possibly not understanding some references or that there were too many interpretations of some metaphors — it is an enjoyable read. I’ll definitely be picking it back up at a later date, in order to delve into it a little more.

[Margaret Ernenwein]

I guess I had a preconceived idea of what a book length poem would be. This was a quick read. A series of vignettes tied together by an underlying feeling of tragedy . Left me thinking about life's loves and loses . C.D.Wright has a wonderful talent of crafting her poetry to evoke feelings hiding deep within.

[Joel Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing as abstract and elusive as it is enchanting and challenging. It feels as if the full text has been scraped away to leave only snatches of narrative peppered with reoccurring symbols. Difficult but rewarding reading.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

If eyes freak you out, this book is not for you. If you don’t like feeling tripped out on words, this book is not for you. If you get irritated by wordplay, this book will confuse you. If you enjoy beautiful lyrical content, this book will fuck you up.

[Michael Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something very wonderful here...

Not to say I understand it, but it is reading mind(s) moving. If you can give up the need to hang on to a single thread and allow it to flow over you--a worthwhile read. Beautiful. I need to read it again (probably thereafter as well).

[Michael Quigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful sentences and phrases that feel like they've been delicately sewn together.

[M Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing poet who died too young.

[Melissa Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book a decade ago -- now I am rereading it and have fallen in love all over again. It is a perfect book. It makes me want to read and write poetry forever.

[Izzy Manson · Rating 5 out of 5]

some of the most amazing poetry i’ve read

[Liam Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars mostly because I have no clue how to rate this? It's both great and draining because I don't understand a word of it. Reading Leaves of Grass at fourteen was still easier than this.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This was very interesting. I was slightly confused throughout it but the story did keep me interested. Clearly this author knows how to write good poetry

[Jess✧✵ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really unique and odd. Enjoyed.

[Jeremy Garner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surreal and disjointed. It feels like a wet log burning and popping, letting off dense, acrid smoke, but you can't move away, because it might be uncomfortable, but it's still warm