The following post is an excerpt from an by聽Trisha Collopy from the .听
Charles Wright聽advises young poets to, 鈥淩ead. Read聽everything they can get their hands on. I would tell them聽what Theodore Roethke says: 鈥榊ou want to be a poet?聽There鈥檚 the library.鈥�
鈥淟earn all that stuff, imitate all that stuff you like, and聽pretty soon you鈥檒l have your own voice and your own聽style. It takes some time, but everybody has to imitate聽when starting out,鈥� he says.
On the morning of this interview, news of the first聽successful free climb of Yosemite鈥檚 El Capitan rock face聽had just broken, and the images worked their way into聽the conversation as Wright mused on the challenges of聽teaching poetry to a new audience.
鈥淓veryone starts with what鈥檚 in front of them,鈥� he聽says. 鈥淚 would try to do that part of poetry at first for beginners聽or high school students, because poetry is a big聽wall for young people鈥攖hey can鈥檛 grasp it.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of like the face of El Capitan, the Dawn Wall.听You have to get up there with your hands and your feet,聽you have to go into poems with all your senses intact聽and your emotions engaged. You don鈥檛 want that to go聽into the poem, you want that to come out of the poem.鈥�
鈥淧oetry鈥檚 hard work, it really is,鈥� says this Poet Laureate.听鈥淵ou don鈥檛 just lay down a couple of feelings and let聽it rest at that. A lot of people do, but that doesn鈥檛 make聽it very strong. It鈥檚 a lot of handholds and a lot of footholds.鈥�