The Poem by Franz Wright
The Poem
Franz WrightIt was like getting a love letter from a tree
Eyes closed forever to find you—
There is a life which
if I could have it
I would have chosen for myself from the beginning
MARGINALIA
1.
How the impossible arrives—wordless, rooted, speaking in a language older than language. You know it when it finds you.
2.
There is a life. Not was. Is. Present tense, still breathing somewhere just beyond our reaching.
3.
When is the beginning? Before the first mistake? Before the first loss?
4.
Maybe the only way to find anything real is to stop searching with our eyes and let ourselves be found by what was always there, waiting in the dark, patient as wood, true as rings counting the years.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Walking to Martha's Vineyard by Franz Wright, published by Knopf, 2003. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“In this radiant new collection, Franz Wright shares his regard for life in all its forms and his belief in the promise of blessing and renewal. As he watches the “Resurrection of the little apple tree outside / my window,” he shakes off his fear of mortality, concluding “what death . . . There is only / mine / or yours,– / but the world / will be filled with the living.” In prayerlike poems he invokes the one “who spoke the world / into being” and celebrates a dazzling universe–snowflakes descending at nightfall, the intense yellow petals of the September sunflower, the planet adrift in a blizzard of stars, the simple mystery of loving other people. As Wright overcomes a natural tendency toward loneliness and isolation, he gives voice to his hope for “the only animal that commits suicide,” and, to our deep pleasure, he arrives at a place of gratitude that is grounded in the earth and its moods.” (Source)
ABOUT FRANZ WRIGHT
Franz Wright was born in Vienna, Austria and grew up in the Northwest, the Midwest, and California. He earned a BA from Oberlin College in 1977. His collections of poetry include The Beforelife (2001); God’s Silence (2006); Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004; Wheeling Motel (2009); Kindertotenwald (2011); and F (2013). He taught at Emerson College and other universities, worked in mental health clinics, and volunteered at a center for grieving children.… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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