Another brilliant collection of poetry from Wright, who died suddenly and unexpectedly this year at age 67.  In this collection, her themes of death (lots of cemeteries), love (husband, son), and nature (trees and birds especially) are spun out in several creative and unusual forms including two long poems on pages that fold out to enable the reader to read the entire poem without turning a page.  Never seen that before.  Sections are named 40 Watts (is this a reference to LA given her focus on the current state of the world), Breathtaken (a long free verse poem about murders in New Orleans that is absolutely breathtaking and very sad), The Other Hand (where each poem’s title begins with Obscurity), From the Belly of the Lamb (where each poem’s title begins with Imaginary), Closer, and the eponymous final poem.  Some lines are perfect: ” When one is no longer emerging one is vanishing.” “The mystery in how little we know of other people, is no greater than the mystery of how much,” and from the eponymous final poem:

Now who will make the record of us

Who will be the author

    Of our blind and bilious hours

    Of the silken ear of our years

    Who will distinguish our dandruff

    From the rest among the gusts of history

    Who will turn our maudlin concerns

    Into moments of incandescence

​If you read only one new poet this year, let it be Wright.  The final part of the book is a wonderful remembrance of her after her death by her editor.  Wright was clearly a very, very special person.