Selected Poems

by Jay Wright

Jay Wright, an eclectic poet attentive to the black traditions binding the Americas to West Africa, is also profoundly influenced by Latin American cultures. This selection of Wright's work, from the publication of his first full-length book "The Homecoming Singer" in 1971 up to the present, represents the range and power of his mythopoetic imagination and his concern for the fate of culture. *Lightning Print On Demand Title

Genres: Poetry

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bulk of this book is an incomprehensible series of puzzles. Im sure it flew straight over my head. I kinda have a problem with poems that can't really stand on their own merit if the reader doesn't get the references made, whether they be about African mythology or Navajo folk tales. Jay Wright's language is amazing, but when it's impossible to understand a sentence of any given poem without being versed in a dozen different obscure disciplines, it's hard to appreciate. This one is getting three stars though, because the selections from the first book of his poems were really wonderful, and even better: readable.