“These things happen…bliss and suffering…” Jane Kenyon

Twilight: After Haying
by Jane Kenyon
Yes, long shadows go out
from the bales; and yes, the soul
must part from the body:
what else could it do?
The men sprawl near the baler,
too tired to leave the field.
They talk and smoke,
and the tips of their cigarettes
blaze like small roses
in the night air. (It arrived
and settled among them
before they [...]

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“What you love is your fate” Frank Bidart

“It might be said that tolerance of hate speech (or tolerance of anything) makes us weak and feckless, as a nation. In fact it is our greatest tensile strength.” Liam Rector
“Unthinkable respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Albert Einstein
then the voice in my head said
WHETHER YOU LOVE WHAT YOU LOVE
OR LIVE [...]

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“Into flesh and poetry.” Wislawa Szymborska

This much we give over to fate
in case we’re wrong
From “Our Last Period Together” by Liam Rector
“Reading a poem is an act of faith and that involves abandoning oneself to something irresolvable.” Carl Phillips
We, too, can divide ourselves, it’s true.
But only into flesh and a broken whisper.
Into flesh and poetry.
—from “Autotomy” by Wislawa [...]

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The Consequences of Silence

53.
Red Canna, I see you. Edge of. What I saw: a flower blossoming, in slow motion.
Not specific enough. Okay. No. Cannot. Red Canna, I veer into you. I am not in
one straight line. Red Canna, I see you. 1904. The University of Arizona Museum
of Art. Opening in slow motion: are you okay? Are you okay? [...]

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“We are dreamt as soon as we speak.” Liam Rector

We are dreamt as soon as we speak.
There are songs that we seem to inherit
on this road that we seem to applaud.
You continue to be dreamt by harm
until the breath of choice turns
you (in all its syllables) somewhere far from habit.
From “Driving November” [...]

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