Product Description

Poetry. "Expertly elliptical phrasings, and an uncounterfeitable, generous feel for real people, bodies, and places, have lately made Wright one of America's oddest, best and most appealing poets... DEEPSTEP teems with wry, rich sentences no one else could have written... and leaps exhilaratingly among verbal registers"--Publishers Weekly. DEEPSTEP COME SHINING is a single long poem based loosely on a road trip through the rural South, in which mythology merges with geography and "language is on the page half-pulled out of earth and rivers--still holding onto the truth of the elements"--Michael Ondaatje. Wright teaches at Brown University and edits Lost Roads Publishers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #638445 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Expertly elliptical phrasings, and an uncounterfeitable, generous feel for real people, bodies and places, have lately made Wright one of America's oddest, best and most appealing poets. Her tenth book consists of a single long poem whose sentences, segments and prose-blocks weave loosely around and about, and grow out of, a road trip through the rural South. Clipped twangs, lyrical "goblets of magnolialight," and recurrent, mysterious, semi-allegorical figures like "the snakeman" and "the boneman" share space with place names, lexicographies, exhortations and wacky graffiti ("God is Louise"). Wright alternates private references with clear allusions, as when images of eye enucleations and glass eyes culminate in a flurry of bits from King Lear. Deepstep teems with wry, rich sentences no one else could have written: "I left my chicory-blue swimsuit back at the motel where the baseball team cannonballed us out of the pool." She leaps exhilaratingly among verbal registers?from "kenatoprosthesis" to "trailer skirt," from "Arkansas toe" and "pinball" to "Ultima Thule." And she loves double meanings?"Morning glories. What's yours." Her uncharacteristically extroverted, ethnographic project also shows her sense of humor?"Her Aunt Flo said she hadn't had any in so long she'd done growed back together." In sorting these glittering, interlocking fragments of "self-conscious Southern poetry, preposterous as a wedding dress," some readers will wish Wright had included notes, or explained her extensive back story; but no one will need more information to cherish Wright's latest "once-and-for-all thing, opaque and revelatory, ceaselessly burning."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Major is perhaps best known for his fiction (see All-Night Visitors, listed above), but he has been writing poetry for years. This, however, is his first collection in a decade. The unlikely images don't always work, but when they do, "his poetry is excellent."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"C.D. Wright is entirely her own poet, a true original" (The Gettysburg Review)0 -- The Gettysburg Review

"Expertly elliptical phrasings, and an uncounterfeitable, generous feel for real people, bodies and places, have lately made Wright one of America's oddest, best and most appealing poets... 'Deepstep' teems with wry, rich sentences no one else could have written...and leaps exhilaratingly among verbal registers." -- 6600

Customer Reviews

Poetry at its very best...
I finished the book this morning....literally couldn't put it down. Breathtaking. Engaging. Funny. Horrific. All-so-true. The eliptical style and interweaving of conversations come to a heartbreaking and honest conclusion. I began rereading it immediately once I reached the end, and felt the solidity in the confluence of voices apparent from the first page. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.... I can only rave. CD is able to (believe it, it's true) sustain tension, warmth, humor, and heartbreak through this epic to the very end.

CD's writing is definitely "of the earth" grounded in the physical as well as in the spiritual. The book: a single poem is worthy of the highest acclaim and prizes.... This book is destined to be a classic.

"blur in, blur out"...wright's illuminating language
wright's "deepstep come shining" reads like flickers of light directly from the soul. rays of repetitive imagery and strange nudges of powerful sensation provide for a truly fascinating and poetically stimulating experience. anyone who is in love with the english language should take a look at this book. although it may be difficult if you are a fan of plots and storylines, the patches of nerve-tingling word combinations will be quite satisfying. wright weaves in combinations and unexpected relationships between places/objects/sensations like no one else. also, if you've seen the movie "smoke," this'll make you start a whole new analytical journey of wonder...:) enjoy...!

Absolutely Breathtaking
CD Wright does the most amazing job at capturing her audience. Using elliptical thoughts and at times outlandish ideas, Deepstep is good to the last drop. When I read this I couldn't put it down and when I was done I had to read it again. I felt like each repeated image was a colorful thread and when all the threads were finally woven together they created this most amazing masterpiece. I recommend that if you like poetry at all, get this book, it's definately a keeper.