Poem of the Week: "Nostalgia" by Charles Wright

The VPR Poem of the Week is Charles Wright’s “Nostalgia,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2001 issue (Volume II, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This poem also has been published in Poetry from Paradise Valley, an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR, recently released by Pecan Grove Press.

Charles Wright is the author of many books of poems and essays. He is a recipient of numerous awards for his poetry, including the National Book Award for Country Music and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Black Zodiac, which also won the Los Angeles Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Prize, and the Ambassador Book Award. Chickamauga won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and Hard Freight was nominated for the National Book Award. In addition, he received the Griffin International Poetry Prize for Scar Tissue. His many other honors include an Ingram Merrill Fellowship in Poetry, an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Grant, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Academy of American Poets’ Edgar Allan Poe Award. He has translated the work of Dino Campana and received the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of Eugenio Montale’s The Storm and Other Poems (Oberlin, 1978).

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.