Jay Wright: Born in New Mexico, Now in Vermont

Poet Jay Wright was born in Alburquerque, New Mexico, in 1934. After a set of careers and studies ranging from professional baseball to theology, he developed a body of potent and elegant poetry. In 2005 he became the first African American to win Yale University's Bollingen Prize.

Wright now lives in Bradford, Vermont. Here's a portion of his poem "The Healing Improvisation of Hair," which can be read in full on Poets.org:

How like joy to come upon me
in remembering a head of hair
and the way water would caress
it, and stress beauty in the flair
and cut of the only witness
to my dance under sorrow's tree.
This swift darkness is spring's first hour.