Charles Wright & Adrienne Rich CD

1997. Introduced by Philip Levine and Marilyn Hacker.

This great pairing of two great poets took place on a night when each received a major prize in poetry, Rich the Wallace Stevens Award, and Wright the Lenore Marshall Prize. Both the prizes and the reading confirm what Philip Levine says in his introduction, "Both [of these poets] are national treasures."

Wright reads from Chickamauga and his next book, Appalachia. Rich reads a selection of new work that includes the long poem "Calle Vision."

Length: 82 min.

Track List

Charles Wright

1. Introduction by Philip Levine
2. Looking Outside the Cabin Window I Remember a Line by Li Po
3. Introduction to Chickamauga
4. East of the Blue Ridge, Our Tombs Are in the Dove's Throat
5. Watching the Equinox Arrive in Charlottesville, September 1992
6. Introduction to "Looking West from Laguna Beach at Night"
7. Looking West from Laguna Beach at Night
8. Introduction to Appalachia
9. A Bad Memory Makes You a Metaphysician, A Good One Makes You a Saint
10. In the Kingdom of the Past, the Brown-Eyed Man is King
11. Cicada Blue
12. Indian Summer II
13. Introduction to "Reply to Wang Wei"
14. Reply to Wang Wei
15. Introduction to "It's Turtles All the Way Down"
16. It’s Turtles All the Way Down
17. Back Yard Boogie Woogie
18. When You’re Lost in Juarez in the Rain and It’s Easter Time Too
19. The Appalachian Book of the Dead IV
20. Early Saturday Afternoon, Early Evening

Adrienne Rich

1. Introduction by Marilyn Hacker
2. Introductory remarks by Adrienne Rich
3. For An Anniversary
4. Introduction to "The Art of Translation"
5. 1
6. 2
7. 3
8. Introduction to "Char"
9. 1
10. 2
11. 3
Letters to a Young Poet
12. 1
13. 2
14. 3
15. 4
16. 5
17. 6
18. 6 (continued)
19. 7
Midnight Salvage
20. 1
21. 2
22. 3
23. 4
24. 5
25. 6
26. 7
27. 8
28. Introduction to "Calle Visión"
29. 1. Not what you thought: just a turn-off
30. 2. Calle Visión sand in your teeth
31. 3. Lodged in the difficult hotel
32. 4. Calle Visión your heart beats on unbroken
33. 5. Ammonia
34. 6. The repetitive motions of slaughtering
35. 7. You can call on beauty still and it will leap
36. 8. In the room in the house
37. 9. In the black net
38. 10. On the road there is a house