from the book What Holds Us, New and Selected Poems

I wrote this poem shortly after 9-11, when I was feeling stunned and unsure of what we are meant to do in our ordinary and yet sacred lives- with such turmoil in the world.

Sometimes the first line is missed in the playing of the slideshow (shoot!)  It is:  “I hung hope out with the laundry…clothes-pinned tenderly beside a pillow case and two sheets.  I could tell she needed air, a sweet puff of wind…”