Upcoming publication of 2 New Books by Rachel

Questions in the Vestibule, poetry, Northwestern University Press, 2015

Talking to the Dead,  essays, Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2015

 Valentine's Day

there was no time to be everything to each other
and so we fell back on a morph a melt
a translation into dancing letters
swimming forgetful bed and holey sheets
valentine red later I smelled your kisses
covering me consuming me and tasted
the silken skin the warm the stretch the smother
each one's assimilation of the other
and at the same time can I call it calm
symmetrical our mutual gaze exploring
faces bodies that can never fit
inside the eye too much and not enough
then in the park trees river birds renewal
snowmelt gleaming sun of afternoon
late late but no less source of coming spring
no time to be less than everything.

  -Rachel Hadas