Our next reader, two weeks from tonight in this auditorium,
will be Richard Wilbur.
Please come to the terrace lounge
in the Student Union following tonight's reading
to meet Mr. Wright.
The University's been corresponding
with James Wright for about eight years,
trying to get him to come and visit.
I am happy that he waited until this year to come.
It's a great pleasure for me to introduce
one of the most distinguished gentlemen in American letters--
James Wright.
[APPLAUSE]
I already pulled this one this afternoon, but can you hear me?
It's the most stupid question that I
suppose one can ask of an audience,
because if you can't hear me, then you don't even
know what question I've asked.
[LAUGHTER]
My wife, Annie, and I would like to say to all of you
that we are very grateful that you invited us,
and we've been treated with wonderful kindness
and intelligence.
[LAUGHTER]
It's true, and we're grateful for that.
We like to go around sometimes together
and find our way as well as we can.
People have helped us and brought some very serious
beauty into our lives by inviting us here and welcoming
us.
And we're very grateful.
This evening I would like to make two requests of you.
First, I would like to ask that you be patient with me
while I flop around some of the proofs of my new book, which
is going to be published in--
well, at the end of March.
And let's all rush out together and buy it.
[LAUGHTER]
No, I mean, but I ask your pardon
if I do a little flopping around with the proofs,
because my editor wasn't able to get adequate proofs to me
before we took off.
I worked on them for a long time.
I write very slowly, and I keep revising things.
I can't help it.
I think I have all the poems in order.
The second request I have to make
is that you be patient with me while I flop the proofs around.
I wanted to begin this evening by reading a whole set of poems
which, in a way, are new, because not very
many of the poems in my new book have
been published in magazines.
A few of them have come out during the last two years
when I was working on this book.
And I liked to publish poems in magazines,
but I didn't publish many of these.
I don't know quite why.
Maybe I was trying to understand something.
It's a peculiar experience.