James Wright — A Blessing

Is there a moment of beauty you can recall that’s like a blessing for you?

This poem takes place at twilight in a field just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, where the poet and a friend encounter two ponies who come “gladly out of the willows / To welcome my friend and me.”  

James Wright was a fellow of the Academy of American Poets and taught at he University of Minnesota, Macalester College, and New York City's Hunter College. He also served in the U.S. Army, and was stationed in Japan during World War II. His book Collected Poems received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He died on March 25, 1980.

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.