Customer Reviews

Before the City

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I was there at Iolani Palace in '93 when Wright was handing out copies of "Aloha, Lili'uokani," a broadside framed with Hawaiian petroglyphs. The persistent blues feel of that poem reminded me of IZ's "Hawaii '78," and I think if IZ was still alive today he would put music to the words. That poem is in this collection and there are 9 other poems set on Oahu and Moloka'i. I would totally recommend buying this nani book if you are from the islands or an ex-pat living on the mainland. A hui hou!

It's nice to read a book of "original" poetry--poetry that has sense of reaching for the deep, blood meaning. BEFORE THE CITY has a lot of substance, expressed in creative, heartfelt observation. At once sarcastic, then ironic, maudlin, angry, hopeless; ultimately hopeful--it's all there, like a painting that provides the eyes with a multitude of lines, colors, shapes, and dimensions. Many beautiful lines reminding of me the surrealism in reality. No one poem overwhelmed me, but all as a group impressed upon me a strong ability to see, to hold onto the feeling and "milk it dry." Very few poets should keep using up precious trees to implant their words-- but Kirby Wright should keep doing it.

I lived in Hawaii for a year; Kirby Wright lived there a lot longer than that. Hawaii's a different country, a more innocent land, a different "state" than the rest of the US. It infects you, that state does, and when you're infected by Hawaii and find yourself in Northern California, and Southern California, and Sunnyvale, and New Jersey you look at those places differently than if you were from just another part of the country. Or Kirby Wright does. He can't help it. There are more poems set in California in this book than there are poems set in Hawaii, but what we get to see when we read it is what the rest of us look like to a guy with this thing they call Aloha in his heart. It's a cool thing to have in your heart. I never quite got it but I recognize it when I see it. "Love in the Library," that's my favorite. It could have happened anywhere. As could many of the other pieces...well, except for the ones that happened in Hawaii. For those you pretty much have to have been there, or you have to be Kirby Wright. Thanks. G.

The words that spill out of Hawaii-born, Punahou graduate Wright tend to seize you right by the lapels. SLAM BAM! The "prose" selections are like rambling liner notes for an art-rock project, fascinating while accompanied by music. The more formal "poems" are punchier, and in their spareness have greater power to goose the imagination. Some are award winners, such as "Aloha, Liliuokalani," and all show an eye for detail and weight.

This is a wry voice, reporting a discriminating and sometimes merciless eye. The first half of the book suggests that each poem is an experiment in itself. It's interesting, for example, to see poems with no perceptible structure utilizing first-word caps in every line, a sparseness of articles. It's even more interesting to come upon an occasional rhyme that makes us wonder whether it might have been thrown in as a mere tease, since it's a unique offering in its poem.The intrepid refusal to stick with any one approach lends the conviction that this poet knows exactly what he's doing. The mystery of why is a goad that impels the reader along page after page.

Kirby Wright wrote the poem "Shiatsu." I suppose "Shiatsu" could have been a broadside and just been distributed and that would have been fine, but no, there are more poems here to read. It's so very easy to just skim over the poetry in BEFORE THE CITY, it really is. But that is the sign of a good book of poetry, a piece of music. The best work here are the poems that contain a bit of prose. Poems like "New Jersey Suburbs at Dusk" and "Fishman" are fine examples. "The Gallery Director" is another very good piece of work. Kirby Wright listens obviously, and he captures a bit of what he has heard. Painting a vivid glint off the sun is a worthy task for each writer.

Smart-mouthed and serious, sometimes bawdy and usually
wise, the poems in Kirby Wright's BEFORE THE CITY remind me
of the paintings of Peter Brueghal, swarming with the large
and small incidents of life. As one of the first editors to
publish his poetry (the loopy portrait of the artist as a young
man entitled "The Mark of the Ass"), I am only chagrined
by not getting to publish other such gems as "Quake" or
"The Architects," poems that show--in the hands of
someone as engaged and as deft as Wright--how
surrealism, lyricism and human commentary go hand and
hand. It is no surprise that Wright's poetry indeed stems from
the geographic landscapes where he has lived--Hawaii and
California, particularly.
Austere and lush in turn, Wright's poetry notices both a
roadside ironwood tree's knowledge of "the meaning of
alone" as well as the way in which night-blooming cereus
spreads itself open to the circling moths. Whether
bemoaning the merchandising of Hawaii or chronicling the
twilight constantly coming on in people's lives, Wright's
poetry certainly has some important assertions as we head
off into a new century: "I am certain we are shorter than the
truth," he states in "Dining with Your Headshot," or "you
can't move something without risking history," he says in
"Ironwood."

Wright wants his poetry to reconfigure the world
so that we can better see its subterranean connections--and
thereby better evaluate what is truly important: "Funny how
our pink roses resemble backyard rags--toilet paper caught
on branches," he writes at the end of "Transformations in
Northern California." Wright also wants to celebrate the truly
important aspects of being human--no matter how
seemingly slight. His description of the man who "smells
macaroni and cheese on a neighbor's stove" and "is relieved
their day has ended" indeed rises up to give me a quiet yet
powerful image of the poet going about the poet's work--
doing the job only writers (like Wright) still realize the need
to do. PUNAHOU BLUES, a Hawaiian Novel
MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, Summers on the Lonely Isle

Length:: 0:53 Mins

November, 2009: HONG KONG

Kirby Wright visits a Buddhist Temple on the coast of the South China Sea.

He has won a Visiting Writer Post at the Hong Kong International Writers Conference.

He will soon have lunch with poet Gary Snyder.

Poetry from Kirby's Hong Kong visit will be published in ASIA LITERARY REVIEW, FOLIATE OAK LITERARY MAGAZINE, CAPER LITERARY JOURNAL, and PISGAW REVIEW.

His narrator in this video is Stephanie Lau, a student at HKBU in Kowloon Tong.

They have just dined on lotus roots.

MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, Summers on the Lonely Isle
PUNAHOU BLUES, a Hawaiian Novel

Before the City
BEFORE THE CITY