Franz Wright

Biography

Franz Wright (1953-2015) won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2004 for his collection Walking to Martha’s Vineyard. He published poems in VQR and other leading literary magazines. His many honors include the Whiting Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.

See Work

POETRY / Winter 1980

View From An Institution

By Franz Wright

Thirty miles or so south of L. A.
stand two hangars, like two tombs
on the plain between
the freeway and the mountains,

POETRY / Summer 1984

A Day Comes

By Franz Wright

A day comes
when it has always been winter,
will always be winter.

POETRY / Autumn 1982

Christ’s Descent Into Hell

By Rainer Maria Rilke ,  Translation by Franz Wright

When it was too much, he went out
of the body’s unspeakable suffering. Rose. Stepped away.

POETRY / Autumn 1982

The Earth Will Come Back From the Dead

By Franz Wright

Down empty roads gray with rain;
through branches
of new leaves then still
more light than leaf;

POETRY / Autumn 1982

In the Reading Room

By Franz Wright

Since I last looked up
from my book,
another appeared in the room

POETRY / Winter 1980

The Visit

By Franz Wright

Almost always, it’s just getting dark
when you come back, when you arrive
on this street;
dark
and perhaps just beginning to rain,