Sunflowers by Jenny George
"Having died / all the way back to the root, I grow again / into a version of the thing I love"
In Winter by Michael Ryan
"are you smiling / at an idea met in a book / the way you smiled with your whole body / the first night we talked?"
I Am Learning to Abandon the World by Linda Pastan
"And every night I give my body up / limb by limb, working upwards / across bone, towards the heart."
To the New Year by W.S. Merwin
"so this is the sound of you / here and now whether or not / anyone hears it"
Clam by Mary Oliver
"Each one is a small life, but sometimes long, if its / place in the universe is not found out."
Orchids Are Sprouting From the Floorboards by Kaveh Akbar
"The cat mews orchids from his mouth. / His whiskers are also orchids. / The grass is sprouting orchids. / It is becoming mostly orchids."
Slow Dance by the Ocean by Linda Gregg
"The world moves, my Lord, and I stay still, / yielding as it passes through."
apology by George Abraham
"forgive the bodies i swallowed like broken teeth: the knees i spent trying to summon god in my own mouth:"