A Blessing from High Forest Rest Stop

Annnie Wright, Janes Wright's 'A Blessing' came to the Rest Stop outside Rochester, and how Kirsten Schowalter got there. A beginning narrative. 

LETTER TO ANNIE WRIGHT FROM YAKIMA

AFTER A LIBRARY CONVERSATION IN MARTINS FERRY

WHILE REMEMBERING A SNOW STORM IN MINNEAPOLIS

AND FINALLY, WONDER OF WONDERS,

FINDING A REST STOP JUST OFF THE HIGHWAY IN ROCHESTER

Dear Annie, By now you've most likely heard from Kirsten

in her own skin and seen pictures too. I'll try and sound like myself

and not confuse you with word costumes at Halloween.

Do I sound like him? Or do I sound like the other guy.

Both men quick with tears, as am I. Thank God

for them, Dick and Jim both.  At the end of the day,

beginning this sentence, I remember throwing

jackknives in Jerry Grouer's front yard

with neighborhood boys trying to stick

the knife in the grass and not into someone's

outstretched toes. Manufacturing spots of time

before we knew Wordsworth--but we knew

more than dandelions even then, all those

daffodils in prairie gardens of our aunts.

Your generosity, Anne Wright, lifts Kirsten's

story into another of the sacred circles,

hyphenating and spirit-filling them with blessings.

Feel this in Kirsten's shout! The snowstorm

cancelling in her earlier trip home, makes you

one of her guides, showing her how poets

reclaim what has been lost in love's pursuit.

Isn't this what you gave Jonathan Blunk

authorizing the biography. He says

your marriage brings more sunlight

into the poems and sobriety. 

No clear glimpse of the poet without Annie.

I felt the two of you like that in Martin's Ferry.

Empathy of the poet. Negative capability of Keats.

How you hang on to your being.

How you share it with Kirsten. With me.

The woman in front of my eyes suspects

I'm only trying for what's clever, something

someone might remember, and most of the time

she's right. When she's not, she's closer

than I am now. She's a bit like you.

Tomorrow I trade in the baseball cap

for the fish bone wool knit from Yoruk Nation

I picked up a few years ago looking for stones

on the Klamath River. Trick or treaters

come tonight and we have Milky Ways

to keep kids safe walking streets.

The doorbell rings. How does someone

as poor as me respond to ponies?

Jim Bodeen

5 November 2018

Anne Wright's presentation at James Wright Festival, April, 2018, Martins Ferry, Ohio: