Abstract

A 'Thirst for the Divine'

This article presents information on two books, "A Short History of the Shadow," by Charles Wright and "Night Picnic," by Charles Simic. Charles Wright and Charles Simic count among the best poets of their generation. Each career has unfolded with considerable excitement for serious readers of contemporary poetry, their latest work always building on previous work, always shifting in unexpected ways, challenging the reader to answer light with light, dark with dark. Their latest books are certainly as good, if not better, than those that preceded them, and that's saying a good deal. In Wright's fifteenth volume, "A Short History of the Shadow," he reaches back to earlier moments in his creative and spiritual life, revisiting "old fires, old geographies," as he says in "Looking Around," which opens the volume. Wright and Charles Simic could not be more different in style, even substance, though Simic's work shares with Wright's an abiding interest in the realm of spirit in its worldly embodiments.