Poets Who Speak to Us

In the early months of the pandemic, a close friend, Erin Gracewood (now getting her MFA at Iowa and we’re very sad about her leaving), shared this poem by Danusha Lameris. And while it was written months before the pandemic it captured so perfectly something of our moment and our loss of physical presence and connection.

Danusha Laméris is the author of The Moons of August (Autumn House, 2014), which was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press poetry prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Some of her poems have been published in: The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The SUN Magazine, Tin House, The Gettysburg Review, and Ploughshares. Her second book is Bonfire Opera, (University of Pittsburgh Press), and she was the 2020 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. She teaches poetry independently, and is a Poet Laureate emeritus of Santa Cruz County, California.