Jill Bialosky
Those long afternoons we trudged
through the North Woods.
Some days it was insufferable,
the cold & still we traveled through
the abyss where the Black Cherry, Pin Oak,
& Red Maple were stripped of their clothes
& the wind slapped our faces, the furies
blotting our eyes, no foreseeable
path in the snow & still we made the journey.
Sometimes we stumbled upon more
than we wanted (how to explain a body
with a blanket over a subway grate for warmth
or the babble of the mind’s asylum, those decorated
with gold of the privileged, those without shoes). Still
it was like an accident of joy, like a chorus gathering,
like a gift from a mysterious god,
it was like the unknown whisper of trees in the park’s
forest. It was the shadow
life I feared.
from the book ASYLUM: A PERSONAL, HISTORICAL, NATURAL INQUIRY IN 103 LYRIC SECTIONS / Alfred A. Knopf
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XXII. is from my long poem, "Asylum:  A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections." The book itself is a journey through grief, terror and survival exploring the threat of human despair, amidst the devastation of history, racism, personal tragedy and fear of a collapsed society. The natural world, a yoga practice, a boy, a mother, a poet, and voices from Plath, Dante, and Celan among others, figure in the book.  In this poem, the poet accompanies a young boy through the park with an awareness the boy does not yet have of the dangers and threats that lurk.
"2021 Poetry Review: Part 3"

In the final installment of NPR's poetry preview, Ana Božičević and Ken Chen, along with Craig Morgan Teicher, select anticipated releases for the upcoming year in poetry, including work by Nathaniel Mackey, Kathleen Ossip and Tomaž Šalamun.
 
via NPR
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