The Delicacy and Strength of Lace (ISBN 0915308746)

Amazon.com Review:
This tender volume follows the blossoming friendship through letters between Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Wright and the then-young poet and novelist Leslie Marmon Silko. The charming correspondences, which unfurled over the final year and a half of Wright's life (1978-1980), are all about the difficulties and sweet pleasures of life, work, writing, and encounters with mean roosters. Silko considers the ways in which her work is imbued with the spirit of her Laguna Pueblo Indian heritage. Wright discusses the need to let a poem sit for a while before showing it to the world, as a poem "goes through changes ... when you leave it alone patiently, just as surely as a plant does, or an animal, or any other creature." Together they explore the catharsis of storytelling, the overwhelming power of words ("how deeply we can touch each other with them," writes Silko), and the beauty of a gentle yet passionate friendship between like-minded souls.

A moving, personal exchange of letters:
_The Delicacy and Strength of Lace_ is an incredibly moving exchange between two great American poets who only met briefly on two occasions: Wright heard Silko read from her work which initiated the correspondence; Silko visited Wright on his deathbed. In between they exchanged letters about their everyday existences, everything from Silko's rooster to the nature of another animal, the human animal. Wright's inititial letter told Silko of his high regard for her book, _Ceremony_ and it's importance and stature in American literature. The letters quickly take on the knowing, personal feel of two people who have known each other for years. The reader is drawn into their lives and, especially, their visions. I recently re-read the book, and once again found myself examining along with the writers the very heart and nature of our existence in this vale of tears. Fans of the poetry of either will find this exchange especially enlightening, but I came to it unfamiiliar with either and found its simplicity and yet its warmth and vision compelling. I often give it as a gift. My copy has been around the world. This is a book to read, relish and re-read. Most readers will probably move next to the works of these two wonderfully compassionate soulmates. Many of Silko's poems appear in the letters.