Well, here we are again, old friend, Ancient of Days,
Eyeball to eyeball.
I blink, of course,
I blink over ten thousand times.
Dear ghost, I picture you thus, eventually like
St. Francis in his hair shirt,
naked, walking the winter woods,
Singing his own song in the tongue of troubadours.
Charles Wright’s many awards include the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His recent books include Caribou (FSG, 2014), Littlefoot (FSG, 2007), and Scar Tissue (FSG, 2006), and he was the guest editor of the 2008 edition of The Best American Poetry. He is the emeritus Souder Family Professor of English at the University of Virginia. In 1993, he received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. In 2014, he was named Poet Laureate.
