"A Blessing" by James Wright

Amanda Hershman 

The feeling of conflict in “A Blessing,” by James Wright makes this poem a narrative. Towards the end of the poem Wright uncovers his desires, “I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,/ for she walked over to me/ And nuzzled my left hand.” Here Wright reveals his venerability, exposing his emotions, and is in awe with one of the ponies. It is as if he feels the pony choose to come out revealing its kindness and it is just them in the grass. Appearing from the dark but soft and kind that the ponies emerged as a blessing. A blessing can be seen as delicate and fragile. He faces the conflict of wanting to have contact with something that seems untouchable. When something, or someone, is out of reach is allows us to desire it more. It also changes us to want to transform in whatever we need to in order to seize it. When Wright sees how gentile the pony is he knows what he then has to appear delicate in order to touch and hold the pony. “And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear/ That is delicate as the skin over a girls wrist./ Suddenly I realize/ that if I stepped out of my body I would break/ into blossom.” He reviles his conflict and yearning he has to be with the pony. It is where he reaches the climax of the poem and quickly concludes by saying that he may break, but it’s not the typical breaking point. It is that he would break into something beautiful, blossom into something fragile and kind. He touches on each point of how he feels, and how he wants to feel. Taking us to imagine it with him, that fragile touch, and delicateness of breaking into blossom.