And so now, I'll read to you some of the poems that
were published by Terrain.
They come from a sequence that's titled Night Letters.
And it's a set of 12 poems that were written between May 2020
and-- or June 2020 and May 2021.
As you all experienced, this was the hardest time.
It was a really hard time for everybody, a really dark time
in every possible way.
And in that period, I'd been working on a different project
and just found that I couldn't do that project anymore.
And I started writing these letter poems or epistolary
poems.
So they're poems that sound like letters.
And this was the way out for me, the way
to get back into writing.
And throughout those letters, I found
that the night sky was this place of solace
and a place to come back to and rest.
So with these, I'm going to start with the two that
were published by Terrain.
And check the time.
So this is October.
These are the "Night Letters, (October 2020)."
Dear--
nearly full moon lifting above mountains sky deepening
toward sunset And that moon so suddenly
huge that I stopped on my bike in the street hungry
for that realness that body that rock
reflecting sunlight mundane and powerful
translucent the way only the moon
before sunset can be
I stopped
on my way home riding American streets
lined with signs and flags touting our
two countries hostilities unfolding
in the air all around me and I rode
Through it anxious that there will be
no end to the ways we delude ourselves
speaking past one another signals crossing silent
in mid-air I do it all the time unwilling
to disagree out loud filled by the fury
I let settle inside me
I have been looking
at the moon all my life haven't you too
Eating its image that light somewhere
in our cells waxing towards fullness
Don't you want to name it that feeling
of seeing your life at a distance
lit by all it cannot hold
Waiting,