TA: Audience; a book club that is discussing Wright's poem

There are a few precious moments marked in a person’s life that are just as important as the epic milestones or the monuments of accomplishments. They are the moments of a deep self-contentment—a realization that everything has its place. James Wright’s “A Blessing” tells about a moment when he had such an experience. Wright finds himself in a condition of pure unfettered happiness, where he was able to undergo the awe inspired by an experience with two Indian ponies at twilight.
This poem serves as a reminder for those who get too tied up with the business and strain of the social world, a world whose social strains are often self-created. The reminder shows that sometimes it is necessary to slow down. The poem illustrates that occasionally moments are just captured, that time can hold its breath and allow a few minutes for someone to breathe in deeply and truly appreciate the glory of the simple and the overlooked.
I think that these types of experiences happen at different times to everyone. It doesn’t happen so much when a person’s physical surroundings change, but when the person changes a little in how they perceive their physical surroundings. Their senses become more acute and intensified with the wonders that encircle them. When reading this poem I couldn’t visualize exactly the grass and the ponies that Wright spoke of, but I could feel how they made him feel. It moved me to instances were I felt the vividness that he described. He writes, “Suddenly I realize that if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.” Reading his poem made me recall those instances when I felt in the same condition.