Of the better-known poets who contributed to From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright, I hear most often from Gibbons Ruark. In promoting the collection at libraries and bookstores, I’ve more than once chosen to read his contribution to the book, a poem called “With Our Wives in Late October.” Recently I emailed him to say how much people have appreciated this lovely and delicate poem. He responded to tell me that it was a conflation of a number of days spent with Jim and Annie during an autumn when they were neighbors. Here’s how it begins:

“Wandering with weather down the long hillside,
We come to the slender reeds in the water,
All of us who lazed by our own rivers
Summer and autumn.

Looking for redwings or leaves that were falling.
Light that was flying, the red wing of summer,
Never dreaming to be by one sure river
Gathered together.”

Gibbons ends the poem by describing the first stars of evening and “the loveliest faces of women.” It’s a wonderful tribute not only to James, but to Annie Wright and Kay Ruark.

Gibbons will have a poem in the June 25th issue of The New Republic.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 11:21 pm and is filed under Book Event, James Wright, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.