I Was Told the Sunlight Was a Cure by Hanif Abdurraqib
"on the days I want to be alive I tell myself I deserve a marching band / or at least a string section to announce my arrival
[Goldenrod, I could say, you know, everybody wants something] by Diane Seuss
"Goldenrod, is your dying hard? I know, / I know dying's hard. Are you reaching toward, you know, or just reaching?"
Transformation by Adam Zagajewski
"I’ve lived humbly, reading the paper, / pondering the riddle of power / and the reasons for obedience."
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."