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Bird of Fire

Rowan Ricardo Phillips

‘No more, no longer the sweet difference / Between real and dream I knew.’

Endpapers

Adrienne Rich

‘Consider yourself / a trombone blowing unheard.’

Supernovae

Ellen Rachlin

‘Theory cannot be tangible fact / like driving on I-95 to get to a lecture / on supernovae.’

Nature Study: Spots

Kay Ryan

‘Reminding us / again that live things / can be flat.’

A Description of the Architectural Impact of My Home, Age 7

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

‘my apartment is neither over / nor under the sidewalk, / but both at once’

Undo it

Carl Phillips

‘I can almost see again: we’ll drown anyway’

Eternities

Charles Simic

‘Could they be the same person?’

17 Melbourne Road

Oliver Reynolds

‘A room at the top of the street / preserving his life in sunlight’

Pax Americana

Rowan Ricardo Phillips

‘It looks like life, or its oasis.’

Poem
(To A)

Harold Pinter

‘I shall miss you so much when I am dead’

Beyond Sunset

Mary Ruefle

‘Red sadness never appears sad . . . it appears in flashes of passion, anger, fear, inspiration and courage, in dark unsellable visions; it is an upside down penny concealed beneath a tea cosy.’

Sampati

Vikram Seth

‘Why do you cry?’

Coming Night

James Schuyler

‘what did you think of, / how long did you wait’

Salad Days

Barbara Ras

‘nothing in those early evenings free / of care could have prepared you’