Having seen the osprey
grasp then set its fish
so that en route from sea
to bay prey's eyes face
only west,
                   having seen,
half-sunblind, that glint writhe
then rise to unimagined
heights on nothing but
thin air, one ultimate
kindness before spicule,
tooth, and tongue,
                                  having seen
struggle slacken to repose
as descending on the nest
catch glimpses the caught,
compendium of spine
and gill and jaw agape,
kaleidoscopic shambles
shimmering in scales,
                                        I say,
raise me like that, unmaker,
wide-eyed and broken-backed,
if only so that I, unmade,
might see for once beyond
all doubt those unknown,
unfathomable parts
that are and are not me.
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Casual, outdoor photograph of a relaxed Forrest Gander
"An Interview with Forrest Gander"

"If a single through line can be said to anchor a body of work as varied and prolific as Gander’s poetry and translations, it is this: the ethos of una-saka, of going beyond the vanishing point, taking his readership with him across the boundary, down the slope, and into the ambiguity of the space beyond, to the other shore, to parts and voices unknown."

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Cover of Stanley Plumly's book, Against Sunset
What Sparks Poetry:
Shara Lessley on Stanley Plumly's "Dutch Elm"


"As a poet, Plumly might be described as an elegist deeply attuned to the natural world. Formally varied, his work is both tender and apprehensive. Often drawing on memory, it attends to matters of isolation, strange beauty, resilience, and loss. 'Dutch Elm,' the opening poem in Plumly’s 2017 collection, Against Sunset, operates very much within this mode. It is in many ways a procession of grief, a sonnet haunted by longing."
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