Welcome to the ninth installment of the Thanksgiving Menu Poem. This is a concept poem structured around the thanksgiving meal I would cook for everyone I could invite to honor a great poet. This year, the guest of honor is C. D. Wright.

It is very easy to honor C. D. Wright; her poetry moves a culture. Her cool poetic manner of gathering phrases that open into pristine abstractions close in on the unfolding human spirit. In mysterious ways the reader understands more than is spoken. The mind fills in, individually to the reader, the gaps that make the whole construct form. Her work has touched me in wonderful ways. There is a look of emerald wisdom in her eye that makes me believe she could tell us what happens beyond death. But I am glad she has never spoiled that surprise.

This year the theme is fun. With the new Obama years I feel like I would like to access the wonder and spectacle of a happy day, and what better feeling than joy for this day of celebration. However, in that ideal of fun I did not want to loose the rigor that goes into this poem series. There is a balance between the work of Wright, the choice of menu and the interplay of poem.

I am a trained chef and I have the ability to prepare this meal and if you come over with a few dollars, I’ll prepare this for you :-) Be sure to come back next year for David Shapiro as Guest of Honor and for 2011 when we will honor both Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff! Come early and stay late :-) Love, Geoffrey