The Undertaking by Louise Glück
“Extend yourself— / it is the Nile, the sun is shining, / everywhere you turn is luck.”
Mission by A.R. Ammons
"as if anything here belonged to you / as if anything here were your concern"
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?"
apology by George Abraham
"forgive the bodies i swallowed like broken teeth: the knees i spent trying to summon god in my own mouth:"
The Cats Will Know by Cesare Pavese
"You too will make gestures. / You’ll answer with words— / face of springtime, / you too will make gestures."
All Woods Must Fail by J.R.R. Tolkien
"For though dark they stand, / all woods there be must end at last"
Myth by Natasha Trethewey
"Again and again, this constant forsaking: / my eyes open, I find you do not follow."
Any Common Desolation by Ellen Bass
"You may have to break / your heart, but it isn’t nothing / to know even one moment alive."
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
"Life is short and the world / is at least half terrible, and for every kind / stranger, there is one who would break you