The selected works of one of our finest American poetsThe thread that dangles us between a dark and a darker dark, Is luminous, sure, but smooth sided. Don't touch it here, and don't touch it there. Don't touch it, in fact, anywhere-Let it dangle and hold us hard, let it flash and swing.-from "Scar Tissue"Over the course of his work-more than twenty books in total-Charles Wright has built "one of the truly distinctive bodies of poetry created in the second half of the twentieth century" (David Young, Contemporary Poets). Oblivion Banjo, a capacious new selection spanning his decades-long career, showcases the central themes of Wright's poetry: "language, landscape, and the idea of God." No matter the precise subject of each poem, on display here is a vast and rich interior life, a mind wrestling with the tenuous relationship between the ways we describe the world and its reality.The recipient of almost every honor in poetry-the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize, to name a few-and a former poet laureate of the United States, Wright is an essential voice in American letters. Oblivion Banjo is the perfect distillation of his inimitable career-for devout fans and newcomers alike.

Contentsfrom Hard Freight (1973)Homage to Ezra PoundHomage to Arthur RimbaudHomage to Baron Corvo Homage to X The New PoemPortrait of the Poet in Abraham von Werdt's DreamChinoiserieOne Two ThreeSlides of Verona Grace NegativesDog Creek Mainline Blackwater Mountain Sky Valley Rider Northanger RidgePrimogenitureNightdream Congenital Clinchfield Stationfrom Bloodlines (1975)Virgo DescendingEaster, 1974 Cancer RisingTattoosNotes to TattoosHardin CountyDelta TravellerSkinsNotes to Skins Link ChainBays Mountain CovenantRural Routefrom China Trace (1977)ChildhoodSnowSelf-Portrait in 2035Morandi Dog SnapshotIndian Summer WishesQuotidianaAt ZeroSentencesDeathNext January 1975Nerval's Mirror Edvard Munch BygonesEquationCalifornia TwilightAnniversary12 Lines at Midnight Dino CampanaInvisible LandscapeRemembering San ZenoBorn AgainCaptain Dog Depression Before the Solstice Stone Canyon Nocturne Reply to Chi K'ang Reunion "Where Moth and Rust Doth Corrupt" AprilSignatureNoon Going HomeCloud River Reply to Lapo Gianni Thinking of Georg Trakl Spider Crystal AscensionMoving On Clear Night AutumnSitting at Night on the Front PorchSaturday 6 a.mHim from The Southern Cross (1981)Homage to Paul CézanneMount Caribou at NightSelf-Portrait Holy ThursdayVirginia Reel Self-PortraitCalled Back Self-PortraitComposition in Grey and Pink Laguna Blues Driving Through TennesseeLandscape with Seated Figure and Olive Trees Dog Yoga California SpringLaguna DantescaDog Day Vespers Portrait of the Artist with Hart CranePortrait of the Artist with Li PoThe Monastery at Vršac Hawaii Dantesca Ars PoeticaBar Giamaica, 1959-60Gate City BreakdownNew Year's Eve, 1979 The Southern Crossfrom The Other Side of the River (1984)Lost BodiesLost SoulsLonesome Pine SpecialTwo Stories The Other Side of the RiverHomage to Claude Lorrain Mantova Driving to Passalacqua, 1960Italian Days Roma I Roma II Homage to Cesare PaveseCryopexyT'ang NotebookArkansas TravellerTo Giacomo Leopardi in the SkyLooking at Pictures California Dreamingfrom Zone Journals (1988)A Journal of English DaysMarch Journal A Journal of True Confessions Night Journal A Journal of the Year of the Ox Light Journal A Journal of One Significant Landscape Chinese Journal Night Journal IIfrom Xionia (1990)Silent Journal Bicoastal JournalDecember JournalGeorg Trakl Journal Language Journal May JournalA Journal of Southern RiversChina JournalLocal JournalLast Journalfrom Chickamauga (1995)Sitting Outside at the End of AutumnReading Lao Tzu Again in the New Year Under the Nine Trees in JanuaryAfter Reading Wang Wei, I Go Outside to the Full Moon Easter 1989Reading Rorty and Paul Celan One Morning in Early JuneCicada Tennessee Line Looking Outside the Cabin Window, I Remember a Line by Li Po Mid-winter Snowfall in the Piazza Dante Sprung Narratives Broken English ChickamaugaBlaise Pascal Lip-syncs the VoidThe Silent Generation An Ordinary Afternoon in Charlottesville Mondo AngelicoMondo Henbane Miles Davis and Elizabeth Bishop Fake the Break Peccatology East of the Blue Ridge, Our Tombs Are in the Dove's Throat As Our Bodies Rise, Our Names Turn into LightStill Life with Spring and Time to BurnWith Simic and Marinetti at the Giubbe Rosse To the Egyptian Mummy in the Etruscan Museum at CortonaWith Eddie and Nancy in Arezzo at the Caffè GrandeWatching the Equinox Arrive in Charlottesville, September 1992Waiting for Tu FuStill Life with Stick and Word Looking West from Laguna Beach at Night Looking Again at What I Looked At for Seventeen YearsLooking Across Laguna Canyon at Dusk, West-by-NorthwestVenexia IVenexia II from Black Zodiac (1997)Apologia Pro Vita Sua Poem Half in the Manner of Li HoMeditation on Form and MeasurePoem Almost Wholly in My Own Manner Meditation on Summer and Shapelessness The Appalachian Book of the DeadUmbrian Dreams October II Lives of the SaintsChristmas East of the Blue RidgeNegatives IILives of the ArtistsDeep MeasureThinking of Winter at the Beginning of SummerJesuit Graves Meditation on Song and StructureSitting at Dusk in the Back Yard After the Mondrian RetrospectiveBlack ZodiacChina Mail Disjecta Membra from Appalachia (1998)Stray Paragraphs in February, Year of the RatStray Paragraphs in April, Year of the RatBasic DialogueStar Turn A Bad Memory Makes You a Metaphysician, a Good OneMakes You a SaintIn the Kingdom of the Past, the Brown-Eyed Man Is King Passing the Morning Under the SerenissimaVenetian Dog In the Valley of the MagraReturned to the Yaak Cabin, I Overhear an Old Greek SongArs Poetica IICicada BlueAll Landscape Is Abstract, and Tends to Repeat Itself Opus Posthumous Quotations The Appalachian Book of the Dead IIIndian Summer II Autumn's Sidereal, November's a Ball and ChainThe Writing LifeReply to Wang Wei Giorgio Morandi and the Talking Eternity Blues Drone and Ostinato "It's Turtles All the Way Down"Half February Back Yard Boogie WoogieThe Appalachian Book of the Dead IIIOpus Posthumous II Body Language "When You're Lost in Juarez, in the Rain, and It's Eastertime Too" The Appalachian Book of the Dead IV Early Saturday Afternoon, Early Evening"The Holy Ghost Asketh for Us with Mourning and Weeping Unspeakable" The Appalachian Book of the Dead VStar Turn II After Reading T'ao Ch'ing, I Wander Untethered Through the Short GrassRemembering Spello, Sitting Outside in Prampolini's GardenAmerican TwilightThe Appalachian Book of the Dead VILandscape as Metaphor, Landscape as Fate and a Happy Life Opus Posthumous III from North American Bear (1999)Step-children of ParadiseThinking About the Night Sky, I Remember a Poem by Tu FuNorth American Bear If You Talk the Talk, You Better Walk the Walk St. Augustine and the Arctic BearSky Divingfrom A Short History of the Shadow (2002)Looking AroundLooking Around IILooking Around III Citronella If This Is Where God's At, Why Is That Fish Dead? It's Dry for Sure, Dry Enough to Spit CottonIf My Glasses Were Better, I Could See Where I'm Headed For Lost LanguageMondo OrfeoIn Praise of Thomas Hardy Is PolaroidsNostalgia A Short History of the ShadowRiver Run Appalachian Lullaby Relics Why, It's as Pretty as a Picture Nine-Panel Yaak River Screen The Wind Is Calm and Comes from Another WorldSummer Mornings Via Negativa Nostalgia II Body and SoulBody and Soul IIfrom Buffalo Yoga (2004)Landscape with Missing OvertonesPortrait of the Artist by Li Shang-YinBuffalo YogaBuffalo Yoga Coda I Buffalo Yoga Coda II Buffalo Yoga Coda IIIThe Gospel According to St. Someone Homage to Mark RothkoPortrait of the Artist in a Prospect of StoneRosso Venexiano Arrivederci KingsportJanuary II Homage to Giorgio MorandiMy Own Little Civil WarSun-Saddled, Coke-Copping, Bad-Boozing Blues In Praise of Han Shanfrom Scar Tissue (2006)Appalachian FarewellLast Supper The Silent Generation II The Wrong End of the Rainbow A Field Guide to the Birds of the Upper Yaak A Short History of My LifeConfessions of a Song and Dance ManCollege Days Bedtime Story TransparenciesMorning Occurrence at Xanadu The Minor Art of Self-defenseScar TissueScar Tissue IIGet a JobArchaeology In Praise of Franz Kafka Vespers The Narrow Road to the Distant CityGhost DaysThe Silent Generation III Time Will Tell The Woodpecker Pecks, but the Hole Does Not AppearSinging Lesson Littlefoot (2007)from Sestets (2009)Tomorrow Future TenseFlannery's Angel In Praise of What Is Missing By the Waters of BabylonHasta la Vista Buckaroo Born Again II No EntryCelestial WatersAnniversary II Sunlight Bets on the Come "Well, Get Up, Rounder, Let a Working Man Lay Down"With Horace, Sitting on the Platform, Waiting for the Robert E. LeeThe Evening Is Tranquil, and Dawn Is a Thousand Miles AwayHomage to What's-His-NameTutti Frutti "This World Is Not My Home, I'm Only Passing Through" Stiletto "I Shall Be Released" Description's the Art of Something or Other"It's Sweet to Be Remembered"In Memory of the Natural WorldYellow Wings Twilight of the Dogs Remembering Bergamo AltoWith Alighieri on Basin CreekWalking Beside the Diversion Ditch LakeThe Ghost of Walter Benjamin Walks at Midnight Bees Are the Terrace Builders of the StarsWhen the Horses Gallop Away from Us, It's a Good ThingAutumn Is Visionary, Summer's the Same Old StuffBitter Herbs to Eat, and Dipped in HoneyNo Angel Time Is a Graceless Enemy, but Purls as It Comes and Goes Terrestrial MusicBefore the Propane Lamps Come On, the World Is a Risk and WonderOn the Night of the First Snow, Thinking About Tennessee Our Days Are Political, but Birds Are Something Else We Hope That Love Calls Us, but Sometimes We're Not So Sure Time Is a Dark Clock, but It Still Strikes from Time to TimeLike the New Moon, My Mother Drifts Through the Night Sky As the Train Rolls Through, I Remember an Old PoemApril Evening The Book Sundown Blues "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" No Direction Home HovercraftTime Is a Child-Biting Dog Nothing Is WrittenLittle Endingfrom Caribou (2014)Across the Creek Is the Other Side of the RiverTime and the Centipedes of NightCake Walk WaterfallsThe Childhood of St. ThomasEverything Passes, but Is It Time?Homage to Samuel BeckettCrystal DeclensionGrace IIHeaven's Eel"I'm Going to Take a Trip in That Old Gospel Ship"Ancient of DaysSentences IIShadow and Smoke Road Warriors"Just a Closer Walk with Thee" History Is a Burning Chariot "Things Have Ends and Beginnings" Little Elegy for an Old FriendThe Last Word "I've Been Sitting Here Thinking Back Over My Life . . .""What Becomes of the Brokenhearted . . ." "My Old Clinch Mountain Home"ToadstoolsDude Pack RatsFour Dog NightsOctober, Mon Amour DucksLullaby Plain SongWhatever Happened to Al Lee? "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" DetourDrift Away"Well, Roll On, Buddy, Don't You Roll Too Slow" Chinoiserie IIChinoiserie IVSolo Joe Revisited Chinoiserie V Translations from a Forgotten Tongue NotesIndex of Titles and First Lines