Even when the night air\u2019s still
the sky and all that fills it will
not merely be, but twinkle, writhe, and wink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One such night without a breeze
I camped by a lake enclosed by trees
and, staring at it, knew not what to think:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lake, the low and innocent
had seemed to swallow the firmament\u2014
the moon herself and every constellation\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
as if each being in the sky
with all its aches, as well as I,
had accepted a humble invitation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by cloning itself, then sent the clone
so the lake would not be so alone.
Alone, unseen, I suddenly stripped and dove<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and, holding my breath, diving deeper yet,
I felt, with the darkness and the wet,
a tingle. Call it \u201cuniversal love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When later I was drying in
the moonlight, I observed how my skin
wore a thousand starlit sequins\u2014from the dive\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and, panting, came to realize
a secret of the still night skies:
That stars don\u2019t only twinkle, writhe
and wink, but, with our mindless, blithe
emergences, will breathe, as if alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when the night air\u2019s stillthe sky and all that fills it willnot merely be, but twinkle, writhe, and wink. One such night without a breezeI camped by a lake enclosed by treesand, staring at it, knew not what to think: In the lake, the low and innocenthad seemed to swallow the firmament\u2014the moon herself … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-KM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2901,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions\/2901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
James B. Nicola, a returning contributor, is the author of six collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense. His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"