Comments on: Walking to Martha’s Vineyard http://www.constantcritic.com/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard/ Timely poetry reviews Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:50:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Daniela Gioseffi http://www.constantcritic.com/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard/comment-page-1/#comment-32 Daniela Gioseffi Sun, 16 May 2004 22:20:00 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.test/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard#comment-32 Though this is a good review on Franzw Wright by Jordan Davis, and though there might be something in the letter prior to mine complaining about Franz Wright's subject matter being too constantly involved with his contemplation of suicide as a central theme of his work--the world, "too much with us late and soon," can certainly make such a theme a universal one. It must be awful to be told that you aren't really up to your father's work, and it's true James Wright dealt with many wider and more worldly moral dilemmas and themes, but the really delightful thing about his son, Franz, is the delicate simplicity of Franz Wright's diction. There is nothing pretentious in his cadence and his imagistic surprises seem stumbled upon without effort or pose. The simplicity of his work appeals to the young. They don't have to have an education in literature to appreciate it. That may be a very refreshing thing for poetry in general when there has been so much pretentious theorizing going on about language and abstract painting and whether a poem should mean or just be. All that nonsensical "post-modern" criticism has in a measure stifled poetry for all but the MFA audience that lives by it. I like the fact the Franz Wright just makes his own simple diction, and now that he has been given the Pulitzer, like his father, he may be satisfied enough to expand his themes. I knew his father as a very sardonic and kindly guy. I was dining with his Dad and other poets the evening James Wright won the Pulitzer, and he was too humble to even mention he'd just had that important phone call announcing it. He didn't want to hurt the feelings of the other poets at the table, i.e. John Logan, whom he much admired, and felt deserved a Pulitzer, or D. Snodgrass, both poets of his generation who might have been saddened by not getting a prize that year themselves. James Wright had a wide intellect and he ws concerned with political issues quite profoundly. It must be very difficult to be his poet son and always be wondering, are they helping me because they loved Dad?-- but if poetry is Franz Wright's salvation, he has not done badly by that muse, and he does not really imitate his father's style. He has developed his own very conversational cadence, sparse and unpretentious, and then he takes imaginative and sometimes surreal leaps that make him very original in style and, yes, a poet that almost anyone who reads can enjoy. I think it is refreshing that he has simplified the dialog with his audience to the degree that poetry can appeal to the masses again. It is good for poetry and good for the audience for poetry to get beyond all that empty, sollipcistic nonsense, and extremely pretentious foolery that resulted in the dreadful spectacle of, for one example, Jorie Graham's SWARM. It is nice that the emperor has clothes again, and real feelings to share with the young who are very disillusioned and need someone to say, I'm disillusioned, too, America, but I go on because there is beauty and love to be sustained in all this cauldron of sorrow and hypocrisy and doubtful future. So, I'm happy for Franze Wright and happy for James Wright that his caring son has found salvation in the muse his father left to him. Blessings on both of them! They are decent, and feeling poets who want to say something useful to a living, breathing audience. Though this is a good review on Franzw Wright by Jordan Davis, and though there might be something in the letter prior to mine complaining about Franz Wright’s subject matter being too constantly involved with his contemplation of suicide as a central theme of his work–the world, “too much with us late and soon,” can certainly make such a theme a universal one. It must be awful to be told that you aren’t really up to your father’s work, and it’s true James Wright dealt with many wider and more worldly moral dilemmas and themes, but the really delightful thing about his son, Franz, is the delicate simplicity of Franz Wright’s diction. There is nothing pretentious in his cadence and his imagistic surprises seem stumbled upon without effort or pose. The simplicity of his work appeals to the young. They don’t have to have an education in literature to appreciate it. That may be a very refreshing thing for poetry in general when there has been so much pretentious theorizing going on about language and abstract painting and whether a poem should mean or just be. All that nonsensical “post-modern” criticism has in a measure stifled poetry for all but the MFA audience that lives by it. I like the fact the Franz Wright just makes his own simple diction, and now that he has been given the Pulitzer, like his father, he may be satisfied enough to expand his themes. I knew his father as a very sardonic and kindly guy. I was dining with his Dad and other poets the evening James Wright won the Pulitzer, and he was too humble to even mention he’d just had that important phone call announcing it. He didn’t want to hurt the feelings of the other poets at the table, i.e. John Logan, whom he much admired, and felt deserved a Pulitzer, or D. Snodgrass, both poets of his generation who might have been saddened by not getting a prize that year themselves. James Wright had a wide intellect and he ws concerned with political issues quite profoundly. It must be very difficult to be his poet son and always be wondering, are they helping me because they loved Dad?– but if poetry is Franz Wright’s salvation, he has not done badly by that muse, and he does not really imitate his father’s style. He has developed his own very conversational cadence, sparse and unpretentious, and then he takes imaginative and sometimes surreal leaps that make him very original in style and, yes, a poet that almost anyone who reads can enjoy. I think it is refreshing that he has simplified the dialog with his audience to the degree that poetry can appeal to the masses again. It is good for poetry and good for the audience for poetry to get beyond all that empty, sollipcistic nonsense, and extremely pretentious foolery that resulted in the dreadful spectacle of, for one example, Jorie Graham’s SWARM. It is nice that the emperor has clothes again, and real feelings to share with the young who are very disillusioned and need someone to say, I’m disillusioned, too, America, but I go on because there is beauty and love to be sustained in all this cauldron of sorrow and hypocrisy and doubtful future. So, I’m happy for Franze Wright and happy for James Wright that his caring son has found salvation in the muse his father left to him. Blessings on both of them! They are decent, and feeling poets who want to say something useful to a living, breathing audience.

]]> By: Franz W. http://www.constantcritic.com/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Franz W. Thu, 13 May 2004 18:47:00 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.test/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard#comment-31 Thanks, this is one of the few reviews (of me) I've ever enjoyed reading.<br> <br> Best,<br> Franz Wright Thanks, this is one of the few reviews (of me) I’ve ever enjoyed reading.

Best,
Franz Wright

]]> By: Bob Cooperman http://www.constantcritic.com/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard/comment-page-1/#comment-30 Bob Cooperman Thu, 13 May 2004 15:48:00 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.test/jordan_davis/walking_to_marthas_vineyard#comment-30 At the risk of being a lone voice and of being deemed insensitive to Mr. Wright's personal demons, despite some lovely and striking images in the first few poems, I disliked this collection immensely: the compulsive repetitiveness of the subject matter, the confessional tone, the almost narcissistic being "half in love with easeful death," all, ultimately, got on my nerves. As a poet, I don't think he's close to his father. Still, even at his most omphalagacytic obsessive, there was a line or two in some poems that struck me as wonderful. It's just that by the end of the collection I could no longer care how many times Mr. Wright has contemplated suicide and not done it, how suicidal and miserable our species is. Perhaps the problem is with me, and my dislike for the confessional mode, which so easily lends itself to self-parody, self-pity, and self-absorption. <br> <br> Robert Cooperman At the risk of being a lone voice and of being deemed insensitive to Mr. Wright’s personal demons, despite some lovely and striking images in the first few poems, I disliked this collection immensely: the compulsive repetitiveness of the subject matter, the confessional tone, the almost narcissistic being “half in love with easeful death,” all, ultimately, got on my nerves. As a poet, I don’t think he’s close to his father. Still, even at his most omphalagacytic obsessive, there was a line or two in some poems that struck me as wonderful. It’s just that by the end of the collection I could no longer care how many times Mr. Wright has contemplated suicide and not done it, how suicidal and miserable our species is. Perhaps the problem is with me, and my dislike for the confessional mode, which so easily lends itself to self-parody, self-pity, and self-absorption.

Robert Cooperman

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