Lake Echo, Dear

By C. D. Wright b. 1949

Is the woman in the pool of light

really reading or just staring

at what is written

Is the man walking in the soft rain

naked or is it the rain

that makes his shirt transparent

The boy in the iron cot

is he asleep or still

fingering the springs underneath

Did you honestly believe

three lives could be complete

The bottle of green liquid

on the sill is it real

The bottle on the peeling sill

is it filled with green

Or is the liquid an illusion

of fullness

How summer’s children turn

into fish and rain softens men

How the elements of summer

nights bid us to get down with each other

on the unplaned floor

And this feels painfully beautiful

whether or not

it will change the world one drop

C. D. Wright, “Lake Echo, Dear” from Steal Away: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by C. D. Wright. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P. O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Source: Steal Away: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2002)

Biography

C.D. Wright was born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, the daughter of a judge and a court reporter. She has published over a dozen books, including Rising, Falling, Hovering (2008); Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems (2007); and a text edition of One Big Self: An Investigation (2003), a project she undertook with photographer Deborah Luster to document Louisiana inmates. She has also published several . . .

Continue reading this biography