POETRY
Angel
The day after the eclipse there was a strong north wind, so we lit the fire
October shone through the windows with its own flame
rekindled stronger after being temporarily doused by the moon
I read about the death of Louise Gluck
She missed the eclipse
I don’t know if she believed in angels — I’ll go with a maybe
For every moment of darkness, there is a brighter, longer light
She can watch next year, in the spring
from her new perspective
when the blossoms tremble to the grinding
of another notable celestial event
Lately I feel like I find authors just a little bit too late. I found Mary Oliver in the 1990’s and then abandoned poetry for a while; by the time I really came back to it, she had passed over to the other side. Louise Gluck just recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I was so excited because I had discovered her writing not that long before. And now, just like that, she too has passed over to the other side. Maybe she and Mary are hanging out, commenting in their own unique ways on the incredible light.
Thank you, readers.
