To the New Year by W.S. Merwin
"so this is the sound of you / here and now whether or not / anyone hears it"
The Conditional by Ada Limón
"Say we spend our last moments staring / at each other, hands knotted together"
All Woods Must Fail by J.R.R. Tolkien
"For though dark they stand, / all woods there be must end at last"
The Light Continues by Linda Gregg
"When the sun / is gone, the light continues / high up in the sky for a while. / When I return, the moon is there. / Like a changing of the guard."
Most Days I Want to Live by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
"And I said, / Then, gosh. What’s the point? / The flowers themselves, / I suppose."
Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris
“Don’t die,” we are saying. / And sometimes, when you spill lemons / from your grocery bag, someone else will help you / pick them up."
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
The Round by Stanley Kunitz
"this morning I saw light kiss / the silk of the roses / A curious gladness shook me"