Once by Eavan Boland
"I do not want us to be immortal or unlucky. / To listen for our own death in the distance."
You Think You Are Something Less Real Than You Are by Wendy Xu
"There is nothing / you won’t put on. You put on the darkness. / You put on some stars and even what / is between them. You put on the moon."
Imagine Sisyphus Happy by Nicole Sealey
"But birds / pluck their own feathers, dogs / lick themselves to wound. Allow me this / luxury. Give me tonight to cut / and salt the open."
Happiness by Raymond Carver
"Such beauty that for a minute / death and ambition, even love, / doesn't enter into this."
Being in This World Makes Me Feel Like a Time Traveler by Kaveh Akbar
"One day I stopped in a lobby for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres / and ever since, the life of this world has seemed still."
Addendum by Diane Ackerman
"I've got lots of sensibility and no common sense; / isn't it better to lie low while the universe bombards
moonchild by Lucille Clifton
"the moon understands dark places. / the moon has secrets of her own." — Lucille Clifton