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."
Clam by Mary Oliver
"Each one is a small life, but sometimes long, if its / place in the universe is not found out."
Performance After the End of the World by Talin Tahajian
"I’ve never been good / at caring very much about language except / when it matters the most."
Because by Grace Schulman
"Because, in a wounded universe, the tufts / of grass still glisten, the first daffodil / shoots up through ice-melt
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
The Broken Sandal by Denise Levertov
"Where was I going? / Where was I going I can’t / go to now, unless hurting?"