Trans- by Rita Dove

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 24, 2015   Trans-   Rita Dove

I work a lot and live far less than I could, but the moon is beautiful and there are blue stars . . . . I live the chaste song of my heart.   —Garcia Lorca to Emilia Llanos Medinor, November 25, 1920   The moon is in doubt over whether to be a man or a woman.   There’ve been rumors, all manner of allegations, bold claims and public lies:    He’s belligerent. She’s in a funk. When he fades, the world teeters. When she burgeons, crime blossoms.   O how the operatic impulse wavers! Dip deep, my darling, into the blank pool.            Copyright © 2015 by Rita Dove. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “How to write an old-fashioned poem to the moon—that luminous orb so swaddled in myth, ensnared in the silvery web of its own symbolism? For eons we have sung to it, shouted at it, wept or frolicked in the shadows or stood under its glow as our spirit howled. Why does the moon call us? Why do we yearn to be called, to step off the hyphen?” —Rita Dove   Rita Dove is the author of Sonata Mulattica (W. W. Norton, 2009). She teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.   Photo credit: Fred Viebahn Most Recent Book by Dove   Sonata Mulattica (W. W. Norton, 2009) "To the Moon [fragment]" by Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Distant Moon" by Rafael Campo "Untitled [and the moon once it stopped was sleeping]" by Erika Meitner Read This Poem   For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week’s featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038