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ShallCross
"Through more than a dozen collections, C.D. Wright pushed the bounds of imagination as she explored desire, loss and physical sensation. Her posthumously published book, ShallCross features seven poem sequences that show her tremendous range in style and approach. As she considers, among other topics, some dark intuitions about human nature, she also nudges readers to question who is telling the story and where one’s thought can lead."— The Washington Post "Wright gets better with each book, expanding the reach of her art; it seems it could take in anything."— Publishers Weekly "Wright belongs to a school of exactly one."— New York Times Book Review "C.D. Wright is entirely her own poet, a true original."— The Gettysburg Review In a turbulent world, C.D. Wright evokes a rebellious and dissonant ethos with characteristic genre-bending and expanding long-form poems. Accessing journalistic writing alongside filmic narratives, Wright ranges across seven poetic sequences, including a collaborative suite responding to photographic documentation of murder sites in New Orleans. ShallCross shows plain as day that C.D. Wright is our most thrilling and innovative poet. From "Obscurity and Elegance": Whether or not the park was safe
she was going in. A study concluded, for a park
to be successful there had to be women.
The man next to the monument must have broken
away from her. Perhaps years
before. That the bond had been carnal is obvious.
He said he was just out clearing his head… C.D. Wright (1949-2016) taught at Brown University for decades and published over a dozen works of poetry and prose, including One With Others, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a National Book Award; One Big An Investigation; and Rising Falling Hovering . Among her many honors are the Griffin International Poetry Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship.
she was going in. A study concluded, for a park
to be successful there had to be women.
The man next to the monument must have broken
away from her. Perhaps years
before. That the bond had been carnal is obvious.
He said he was just out clearing his head… C.D. Wright (1949-2016) taught at Brown University for decades and published over a dozen works of poetry and prose, including One With Others, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a National Book Award; One Big An Investigation; and Rising Falling Hovering . Among her many honors are the Griffin International Poetry Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship.
- GenresPoetry
140 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 2016
11 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
C.D. Wright
43 books99 followersC. 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 8, 2016
It took me a long journey to arrive at this book. After C.D. Wright's death in January 2016, there was an outpouring of grief for her among people I knew on social media who had known her personally: these mourners volunteered anecdotes about her above-and-beyond generosity, kindness, inclusiveness, and humanity, her willingness to set aside careerist considerations to speak out against injustices. Reading such stories, I thought, "I wish I knew someone like that. More: I want to be someone like that." Then the February 2016 issue of Poetry printed Wright's "From 'The Obscure Lives of Poets'", a piece almost superhuman in its breadth of imagination, its wide-ranging visionary empathy and intellect, which reminded me of some of the great poets of Latin America but whose likeness I could scarcely recall having seen recently in U.S. poetry.
Then, at a Barnes and Noble in suburban Minnesota, I stumbled on ShallCross. This is a store where I spent some of the happiest, most peaceful hours of my childhood, and although the book industry has drastically changed of late, this particular store still felt like a welcoming refuge: as I approached the poetry section, an elderly female employee warmly greeted me, irrelevantly but with the best of intentions informed me that she could help me add my name to the waiting list for the then-soon-to-be-released latest Harry Potter book (this, especially, made me feel like it was the '90s again), then respectfully withdrew and left me to the privacy of my own meanderings.
ShallCross (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), the final poetry collection Wright assembled before her sudden death (and the collection to which "From 'The Obscure Lives of Poets'" belongs), is an unusually designed hardcover: there is no book jacket, and there are two pages that fold out to accommodate poems whose very long lines are printed vertically rather than horizontally. The front matter touts Wright as "the most thrilling and innovative poet of the past four decades," a "beloved" poet whose work mingled "journalistic activism, sociopolitical outrage, and erotic lyricism." Reader, how could anyone human not be seduced?
The book consists of one long poem, three quasi-long poems, and three groupings of short poems, a perfect assortment for a reader of short attention span like myself. These sections vary dramatically in style and typography: some poems use punctuation whereas others use none; some are composed of short lines while others use only long lines; some poems are aligned flush left, others flush right; some are double-spaced, others single-spaced. To me, these variations testify that the poet was 100% mentally present during the making of her poems, attentive to every last detail of composition and visual presentation.
I was immediately sucked in by "40 Watts," a clustering of very brief, almost haiku-like poems about everyday life in the Ozarks whose sensibility lies somewhere between Basho's and Lorine Niedecker's. This is one of the "40 Watts" poems in its entirety (I took a snapshot of it on my phone so that I could return to it at any time, any place):
Poems like this, which use line breaks cannily and don't use punctuation at all, require reading in an iterative way: as you're reading, you have to pause now and then, reread previously read lines, and ask yourself questions like, "Does the descriptor 'outside the window' apply to the lilacs or the spring (or both)? What word (or words) does the adjective 'cold' modify?" This forces you to be as present during the reading process as the writer was during the writing process.
Because it requires you to be so present in the moment, reading this book feels like engaging in a spiritual practice like meditation or yoga, or, perhaps, like reading the Egyptian Book of the Dead: at least half the poems, by forcing the reader to dwell on the manifold little vulnerable things that populate our lives (the lilacs, the leather boots, the snakes that might incinerate at virtually any moment), feel like they were written for the express purpose of preparing us -- both the writer and the reader -- to confront our eventual deaths. They teach us attentiveness, patience, equipoise. There's a school of thought that says a writer's or artist's personality doesn't matter, that Hitler's paintings were fine paintings even though he was Hitler. Books like this remind me of why I am inclined to disagree with that dogma: with a few exceptions that are rare as lightning strikes, it is only possible to learn attentiveness, patience, kindness, etc., from someone who possesses those traits, just as it is generally only possible to learn wisdom from a teacher if that teacher is wise.
The "40 Watts" poems were my favorite in this book, but I must also give a shout-out to "Breathtaken," a collage-style poem created by piecing together phrases gleaned from the NOLA.com Crime Blog and from interviews with the deceased's survivors:
This is the kind of very ambitious poem that could easily devolve into moralistic grandstanding but, miraculously, doesn't. Its pounding repetitiveness could easily grow tiresome, but Wright has a fine sense of timing that doesn't allow this, and she mixes just enough variation into this delicate balance of theme and variation that even I (who generally am allergic to long poems) found myself compelled to read this quite long poem in a single sitting, on the edge of my seat.
Then, at a Barnes and Noble in suburban Minnesota, I stumbled on ShallCross. This is a store where I spent some of the happiest, most peaceful hours of my childhood, and although the book industry has drastically changed of late, this particular store still felt like a welcoming refuge: as I approached the poetry section, an elderly female employee warmly greeted me, irrelevantly but with the best of intentions informed me that she could help me add my name to the waiting list for the then-soon-to-be-released latest Harry Potter book (this, especially, made me feel like it was the '90s again), then respectfully withdrew and left me to the privacy of my own meanderings.
ShallCross (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), the final poetry collection Wright assembled before her sudden death (and the collection to which "From 'The Obscure Lives of Poets'" belongs), is an unusually designed hardcover: there is no book jacket, and there are two pages that fold out to accommodate poems whose very long lines are printed vertically rather than horizontally. The front matter touts Wright as "the most thrilling and innovative poet of the past four decades," a "beloved" poet whose work mingled "journalistic activism, sociopolitical outrage, and erotic lyricism." Reader, how could anyone human not be seduced?
The book consists of one long poem, three quasi-long poems, and three groupings of short poems, a perfect assortment for a reader of short attention span like myself. These sections vary dramatically in style and typography: some poems use punctuation whereas others use none; some are composed of short lines while others use only long lines; some poems are aligned flush left, others flush right; some are double-spaced, others single-spaced. To me, these variations testify that the poet was 100% mentally present during the making of her poems, attentive to every last detail of composition and visual presentation.
I was immediately sucked in by "40 Watts," a clustering of very brief, almost haiku-like poems about everyday life in the Ozarks whose sensibility lies somewhere between Basho's and Lorine Niedecker's. This is one of the "40 Watts" poems in its entirety (I took a snapshot of it on my phone so that I could return to it at any time, any place):
Poem from Pearl's House
I can smell the lilacs
outside her window
I can smell the spring
where she kept things
cold I smell the shed
his worn-out leather
the snake that must've
been sleeping when
the rags hit the gasoline
Poems like this, which use line breaks cannily and don't use punctuation at all, require reading in an iterative way: as you're reading, you have to pause now and then, reread previously read lines, and ask yourself questions like, "Does the descriptor 'outside the window' apply to the lilacs or the spring (or both)? What word (or words) does the adjective 'cold' modify?" This forces you to be as present during the reading process as the writer was during the writing process.
Because it requires you to be so present in the moment, reading this book feels like engaging in a spiritual practice like meditation or yoga, or, perhaps, like reading the Egyptian Book of the Dead: at least half the poems, by forcing the reader to dwell on the manifold little vulnerable things that populate our lives (the lilacs, the leather boots, the snakes that might incinerate at virtually any moment), feel like they were written for the express purpose of preparing us -- both the writer and the reader -- to confront our eventual deaths. They teach us attentiveness, patience, equipoise. There's a school of thought that says a writer's or artist's personality doesn't matter, that Hitler's paintings were fine paintings even though he was Hitler. Books like this remind me of why I am inclined to disagree with that dogma: with a few exceptions that are rare as lightning strikes, it is only possible to learn attentiveness, patience, kindness, etc., from someone who possesses those traits, just as it is generally only possible to learn wisdom from a teacher if that teacher is wise.
The "40 Watts" poems were my favorite in this book, but I must also give a shout-out to "Breathtaken," a collage-style poem created by piecing together phrases gleaned from the NOLA.com Crime Blog and from interviews with the deceased's survivors:
...homeless, stabbed in torso
homeless, stabbed in back
on Loyola
on Danzinger Bridge, a boy, 17 [NOPD]
on Danzinger Bridge, a man, mentally challenged
in the back [NOPD again]
behind the wheel of his new car
by a peer, 14
on Babylon Street, 17, by peers
in Gert Town...
This is the kind of very ambitious poem that could easily devolve into moralistic grandstanding but, miraculously, doesn't. Its pounding repetitiveness could easily grow tiresome, but Wright has a fine sense of timing that doesn't allow this, and she mixes just enough variation into this delicate balance of theme and variation that even I (who generally am allergic to long poems) found myself compelled to read this quite long poem in a single sitting, on the edge of my seat.
June 1, 2017
Bittersweet read. I've been a fan of C.D. Wright for some years now and to read her last book is both profound and humbling. I also enjoyed the afterword which gives us a glimpse into Wright's thoughts on poetry and this collection. "It's a poem if I say it is" sums her up for me. Thank you, poet.
June 20, 2017
This is one of the best books of poetry I've ever read. Some sections weren't as good as others, but the book overall was beyond outstanding.
October 14, 2021
** 4 stars **
Reading this poetry collection was like a fever dream, and I was here for it. Could I tell you what this volume is *about*? Not really. But I can tell you that I felt at points disturbed, reflective, somber, and moved by the beauty of the language here. Would recommend for lovers of poetry, especially if you appreciate aesthetics and experimentation.
An excerpt from the title poem "ShallCross":
"Now who will make the record of us
Who will be the author
Of our blind and bilious hours
Of the silken ear of our years
Who will distinguish our dandruff
From the rest among the gusts of history
Who will turn our maudlin concerns
Into moments of incandescence"
Reading this poetry collection was like a fever dream, and I was here for it. Could I tell you what this volume is *about*? Not really. But I can tell you that I felt at points disturbed, reflective, somber, and moved by the beauty of the language here. Would recommend for lovers of poetry, especially if you appreciate aesthetics and experimentation.
An excerpt from the title poem "ShallCross":
"Now who will make the record of us
Who will be the author
Of our blind and bilious hours
Of the silken ear of our years
Who will distinguish our dandruff
From the rest among the gusts of history
Who will turn our maudlin concerns
Into moments of incandescence"
April 9, 2024
ashamed to say i had not read any c.d. wright prior to this moment, but i'm so glad i picked this up at my local library :') wright is a master of micro-poetry, and i love her minimalist, midwestern-gothic style. i will definitely be reading more wright in these next few months! her work feels best suited for a warm summer evening.
January 7, 2017
There is a lot to love about this collection, each section is a different kind of experience. I love the play with form included, and the right images packed in little poems. Some of the longer poems that used a lot of white space were sometimes difficult to read, and I felt like they could be read in different ways, but was not sure that was the purpose. Overall, a collection that asks a lot of the creative process, accessible, but downright questioning.
Read
February 13, 2021I like the way CD Wright groups words and I sense meanings more than really understand them. Her forms are also intriguing.
I’m reading one book of poetry a month this year - and learning how to do it as I go along. I’m not rating these books because it’s new. I’m used to slow reading poetry with a group of people. Trying to find meaning on my own is much more challenging. Hopefully I’ll get better at it with each book.
I’m reading one book of poetry a month this year - and learning how to do it as I go along. I’m not rating these books because it’s new. I’m used to slow reading poetry with a group of people. Trying to find meaning on my own is much more challenging. Hopefully I’ll get better at it with each book.
December 20, 2016
I liked the sequence about murders in New Orleans a lot, reminded me of Bolaño.
March 18, 2018
This demands a second reading, still waiting for the time to do that
July 2, 2022
'Under the Tree of Disappointment
In a dirty skirt in a ruff
Of dirt the color of dirt
If a hand and it could be my hand
Moves over the bark it touches
Where an arrow passed through the trunk
The mind wills it into reverse
That the shaft of the arrow glide
Soundlessly backward
And the hand it could be your hand
Soothes the welt left by its entry'
(from 'ShallCross', p138-139)
In a dirty skirt in a ruff
Of dirt the color of dirt
If a hand and it could be my hand
Moves over the bark it touches
Where an arrow passed through the trunk
The mind wills it into reverse
That the shaft of the arrow glide
Soundlessly backward
And the hand it could be your hand
Soothes the welt left by its entry'
(from 'ShallCross', p138-139)
December 30, 2018
I liked the first 50 or so pages of this book much better than the last app. 100 pages. The first part includes short poems that created interesting and colorful images in my mind. The latter and larger part was much more wordy without the impact of the first part.
January 30, 2019
Wright's last book, in which she continues her fearless lyricism, formal play and advocacy. I'll very much miss not reading further work.
January 18, 2021
The short poems are good, the rest just carry on...boring.
July 9, 2021
Wonderful. Literally! Will have to reread.
March 4, 2017
This is an evocative and beautifully written collection by C.D. Wright. Combining short form with more prose oriented longer works, "ShallCross" incorporates many striking themes and images that stay with you long after you finish reading the poems. I found myself crying at several of these, particularly those in the Breathtaken cycle, written in response to the documentation of murders in New Orleans. These poems achieve transportation. Reading them reminded me that poetry has a lot of power in a concise package. This was my first exposure to C.D. Wright, who died unexpectedly in 2016, but it will definitely not be my last.
November 1, 2020
ominous travels through time and space and every iteration of a moment
December 27, 2016
I struggle some with long poems-- I'm more immediately affected by the compression of language some poets pursue-- which means that while I've marveled at long poems like Deepstep Come Shining, I'm not always drawn to reading CD Wright. But this book, the first fifty pages or so are all short poems (the book is calling them a sequence, but that feels a bit like a pretense here), and they are lovely and luminous and strange. There are longer, more attenuated sequences in this book as well, and to me, maybe they show a little flagging of energy on Wright's part, though they are still pretty great.
A very strong final collection, with the best materials, to me, coming in the first third of the book.
A very strong final collection, with the best materials, to me, coming in the first third of the book.
November 26, 2016
Wright was/is a remarkably observant poet, almost writing in the Imagist School style, but with quirkier word play. "The man next to the monument must have broken/ away from her. Perhaps years/ before. That the bond had been carnal is obvious./ He said he was just out clearing his head./ They followed the walk of pollarded pear trees. His tone/ distant but not disinterested..." And there is a lovely pull out poem (three pages, folded, to be read vertically) called "From the Obscure Lives of Poets" that reads like a contemporary Whitman elegiac catalog of poetic types.
August 3, 2016
In a year with so many deaths, one poet dying suddenly in her sleep could understandably be overlooked by most of the world. But for those of us who enjoyed CD Wright's poems, it lacked closure because of its suddenness, and its being buried by the deaths that came after.
Shallcross gives that closure to us, with its empathy for the living and the dead, its brief phrasing cutting to the quick what it means to be human, to suffer, to want. To love.
Shallcross gives that closure to us, with its empathy for the living and the dead, its brief phrasing cutting to the quick what it means to be human, to suffer, to want. To love.
October 24, 2016
A beautiful, demanding, and poignant book of poetry. The book was going to press when the poet passed away (one more book is in the works). The book explores examinations of the creative process, the observations of outsiders, and in "Breathtaken," the sadness and incompleteness of murder victims in New Orleans. An important work by an important poet.
September 20, 2019
3.5
i'm not sure i got a lot of these but i'm intrigued enough that if i had more time with this one from the library i might read it again. and i'd like to read some of the author's other collections.
i'm not sure i got a lot of these but i'm intrigued enough that if i had more time with this one from the library i might read it again. and i'd like to read some of the author's other collections.
June 28, 2016
They are lovely poems with playful thoughts and lively lines, but I felt very removed from much of it.
July 28, 2016
Her last works released months after her death--
October 7, 2016
I loved From the Obscure Lives of Poets, Closer, and ShallCross. The first half of the book was harder for me to get into.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews