Charles Wright Joins NPR's 'All Things Considered' to Welcome Autumn

What could be a better way to summon autumn than a visit by new poet laureate, Charles Wright, to the studios of NPR'S "All Things Considered" for a conversation with host Melissa Block? Answer: A conversation with Melissa Block AND a poetry reading! Get your dancing shoes on...

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

The turn of season into fall can be a reflective time - a time of passage and decline. Well, today, we turn to poetry to mark the seasonal shift with the new U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Wright. He's here in Washington to give his inaugural laureate reading at the Library of Congress. And he finds throughout his poems over the decades a running seasonal theme.

CHARLES WRIGHT: Though the seasons come into almost everything, because I'm trying to be specific when I'm writing about something - so I'll mention the season. I'll mention the month. I'll mention sometimes even the day. And since most of my books are kind of ongoing meditation - a poem, you know, that's been going on for about 40. If - God forbid - you should read through the entire thing, you'll see that it's very repetitive, because meditation is a repetitive thing. And these are mostly all meditations on my obsessions.

BLOCK: It's interesting though, because you see them very much all of a piece over the course of your career.

WRIGHT: Well, it turns out that way. I don't - I'm not sure I started out thinking that. But when I realized that was what was happening, I just, you know, continued - went with the flow of the seasons. But yeah, I guess I'm a - I guess I'm a seasonal poet. If you can recall, you can't really - I've never been able to call myself a poet. [...]

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