C.D. Wright

If I wanted to understand a culture, my own for instance... I would turn to poetry first. For it is my confirmed bias that the poets remain the most 'stunned by existence,' the most determined to redeem the world in words. ―C.D. Wright

"Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified."  ―C.D. Wright

"It is poetry that remarks on the barely perceptible disappearances from our world such as that of the sleeping porch or the root cellar." ―C.D. Wright

 “Poetry is a necessity of life. It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so.” ―C.D. Wright

"Twirling our skirts. Laughing until clouds sopped up the light. And the peaches fell down around us." ― C. D. Wright, Girl Friend Poem #3

Poetry itself, for C.D., was that which liberates us by dodging categorization. “It may be that because poetry is the most difficult to pin to the wall,” she said, “it has a chance of a future.” And perhaps this is why C.D. Wright is so delightfully hard to pin to the wall, because she, like poetry, lived freely and variously and fully engaged with others and the world. As C.D. wrote, “It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so.” And declare them so she did, shining. (source)