In My Next Life Let Me Be a Tomato by Natasha Rao
“I want to be unabashed, audacious, to gobble / space, to blush deeper each day in the sun, knowing / I’ll end up in an eager mouth.”
The Undertaking by Louise Glück
“Extend yourself— / it is the Nile, the sun is shining, / everywhere you turn is luck.”
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
Leaf by Seán Hewitt
"For woods are forms of grief / grown from the earth. For they creak / with the weight of it."
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."
To Be Held by Linda Hogan
"the way a tree always shelters the unborn life / waiting for the healing / after the storm / which has been our life."
The Round by Stanley Kunitz
"this morning I saw light kiss / the silk of the roses / A curious gladness shook me"
God Says Yes To Me by Kaylin Haught
"and she said honey / she calls me that sometimes / she said you can do just exactly / what you want to"