In Quarantine - The pine's last
The pine’s last branch in the corner
of my window, waving: for what?
Beckoning toward all the immaterial
I loved. Asking me to come forth,
live in the ideal. But my pain is in the actual
organ of my heart, ever in the nanoseconds
before breaking.
Christina Pugh’s new book of essays on poetry, Ghosts and the Overplus, was just released by the University of Michigan Press “Poets on Poetry” series. She has also published five books of poems including Stardust Media (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. Her sixth book of poetry, The Right Hand, is forthcoming (Tupelo Press, 2024). Her poems have appeared widely, including in The Atlantic, Poetry, Yale Review, Colorado Review, and other publications. The recipient of fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, the Bogliasco Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and others, she is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was recently announced Distinguished Scholar of the Year in Humanities, Arts, Design, and Architecture. www.christinapughpoet.com