posts tagged "franz wright"

"The long silences need to be loved, perhaps
more than the words
which arrive
to describe them
in time.”
-Franz Wright, from “Home Remedy"

"I’m never going to get this right.

And I can’t go on forming
and tasting your name
or biting down in blinding pain
forever—no;

from now on I have entered
           and live in our unspoken words.

And the space I took up in the world scarlessly closes like water.”
-Franz Wright, from “Midnight Postscript"

"…the first minute of death is so long, like the first minute of consciousness there in the infinite darkness of somebody weeping, you never arrive, never reach shore, never mind with what clarity you seem to hear with your lips distant roar of surf breaking.”
-Franz Wright, “Circle,” Poetry Magazine, January 2011"

"Remember
me. Do you
remember me?
In the night’s windowless darkness
when I am lying cold and numb
and no one’s fiddling with the lock, or
shining flashlights in my eyes,
although I never write, secretly
I long to die with you”
-Franz Wright, from “Dedication"

"Ceaseless blue lightning, this
love passing through me:
I know somehow it will go on
reaching you, reaching you
instantly
when I’m not in the way;
when it is no longer deflected
by all the dark bents, all
I tried to overcome but I could not—
so much light pulled off course
as it passed within reach, so much
lost, lost in me,
but no more.”
-Franz Wright, from “Our Conversation"

"Words, more words. What have I
done?”
-Franz Wright, from “Don’t Ask Me"

"I have been spared the fate
of those who love words
more than what they mean”
-Franz Wright, from “University of One"

"Empty me of the bitterness and disappointment of being nothing but
myself
Immerse me in the mystery of reality
Fill me with love for the truly afflicted
that hopeless love, if need be
make me one of them again–"

-Franz Wright, from  "Why is the Winter Light"

"There is only one heart in my body, have mercy
on me.”
-Franz Wright, “One Heart"

"star-far from the person right next to me, but
closer to me than my bones you

you are there”

-Franz Wright, from “Flight"