Weekly Poem: 'Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof'

**By C.D. Wright**              It is 2005, just before landfall. Here I am, a labyrinth, and I am a mess. I am located at the corner of Waterway and Bluff. I need your help. You will find me to the left of the graveyard, where the trees grow especially talkative at night, where fog and alcohol rub off the edge. We burn to make one another sing; to stay the lake that it not boil, earth not rock. We are running on Aztec time, fifth and final cycle. Eyes switch on/off. We would be mercurochrome to one another bee balm or chamomile. We should be concrete, glass, and spandex. We should be digital or, at least, early. Be ivory-billed. Invisible except to the most prepared observer. We will be stardust. Ancient tailings of nothing. Elapsed breath. No, we must first be ice. Be nails. Be teeth.                                                    Be lightning.   "C.D. Wright":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/07/weekly-poem-like-hearing-your-name-called-in-a-language-you-dont-understand.html _has published 13 collections of poetry and prose. "Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof" is taken from her most recent book, "Rising, Falling, Hovering" (Copper Canyon, 2008), which in June won Canada's_ "Griffin Poetry Prize":http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/home.php, _bestowed by the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. Wright has also received fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation. In the '90s, Wright served five years as the State Poet of Rhode Island. She is currently a professor of English at Brown University._