Unholy Sonnet by Nada Faris
“like beasts who only want // to love God in every language” — Nada Faris
Radio by Mark Kirschen
“And soon enough / You will feel lightly / For the warmth over your heart” — Mark Kirschen
[You darkness, that I come from,] by Rainer Maria Rilke
“But the darkness pulls in everything: / shapes and fires, animals and myself, / how easily it gathers them! — ” — Rainer Maria Rilke
Elegy by Aracelis Girmay
“This is the only kingdom. / The kingdom of touching; / the touches of the disappearing, things.” — Aracelis Girmay
Sustenance by Eugenia Leigh
"I mistook you / for a loaf I had prayed for. You let me // take you in my mouth" — Eugenia Leigh
Vespers by Derrick Austin
"Like children who rub their grimy hands over everything, / they only want to touch and be touched by grass." — Derrick Austin
My Crow by Raymond Carver
“It sat there on the branch for a few minutes. / Then picked up and flew beautifully / out of my life.” — Raymond Carver
Lord I Thought at Least You’d Be Here by Elizabeth Metzger
"When I lay next to you in life / only you had the life." — Elizabeth Metzger
To Revolt Is To Insist On Joy by Nur Turkmani
“The poems weren’t lying. It’s true. / It’s true it’s true it’s true” — Nur Turkmani
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."