Grass Chapels: New & Selected Poems

Grass Chapels offers readers a sampling of William Wright’s poetry from eight previous collections, along with a section of new poems written in the last several years. The poems in this collection are grounded in the beauty and energy of the physical world, particularly wilderness, and specifically Southern landscapes. Wright’s poetry is often gothic in tenor, and these meticulously wrought pieces investigate themes as varied as the limits of language, the importance and amorphous nature of memory, the miracle and mystery of consciousness, and the cyclical and embattled state of both human beings and the natural world from which they spring. Some of Wright’s poems are lyrical explorations; some are narratives about characters that have sprung from his imagination, though these characters are almost always inspired by his childhood experiences and, in the case of several longer narratives, his dreams. Wright’s works are informed by his knowledge of the hard sciences and his belief in the power of the human imagination, creating varied works that integrate geology, botany, biology, spacetime, speculative visions of the future, and an understanding of the past. Just as often, Wright works with motifs such as race relations, family, kindness, and religiosity. The combination of intellectual and emotional power in these works make his voice uniquely striking, sometimes surreal, and always fascinating. Brimming with imaginative power, Wright’s Grass Chapels offers readers a chance to witness the maturation of a poet who novelist and poet Robert Morgan has called one
of the most exciting talents in contemporary poetry.