Translations of the Gospel Back Into Tongues
“CD Wright’s is a poetry of Southern mountain vision brought to the streets in a language of brilliant synaesthesia, colloquial warmth and laconic wit. These are unpredictable poems of jazz, dreams, domestic violence and ‘what is written on mirrors in Louisville.’ The territory is uniquely Wright’s, but borders that of James Agee and Diane Arbus: common, strange and filled with risk. Throughout these poems there is a saxophone playing and a poignant voice making sense.” — Carolyn Forché
“Images rise from these poems like startled birds flushed from the field. What we have is the courage of a writer with and against the sad voices, and that original language of a faith in faith. This is the fluent reverie, a long drug of feeling, taking us to places and things seen clearly and with grace.” — Norman Dubie
“The dramatic and emotional vitality of CD Wright’s language, the authenticity and daring of her tone and speech, make her poems, one after the other, surprising, outrageous, exciting, moving, funny. She incorporates naturally the bitterness, loneliness and humor of the world and tradition of the blues—passionate, disappointed, violent, awry. Her voice and her talent are genuine and unmistakable. They give heart.” — W. S. Merwin