Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

If you fall into it  

it will catch you, the way  

it caught everything you lost 

as a child. Silver thread  

of cloud. Gold earring, 

bright & worldly things 

with their polymer onwardness,  

a willingness not to decay. 

Tell me, I said, about what has survived. 

Tell it with only two threads & your hands 

swimming over & under 

& over again, until the fabric speaks  

& the textile is a text – 

          warp: 

           what reminds us of love 

           is worth keeping 

           weft: 

           all your failed experiments 

          might yet be of use 

Even a rug of dust & earth is fit for prayer.  

The land holds as lovingly as any mother. 

The land holds, it’s true, & it’s not too late 

to call that holy, even now; 

to touch your brow to the ground knowing this.