Poet's Playdate: Sunday in the Park with Lisa Barnett

Duck, duck, goose!

Lately I've become a bit obsessed with how much sun and fresh air I'm not getting while I stay indoors writing all day. So this Sunday I took a little walk with my friend, neighbor, and fellow poet, Lisa Barnett.  

She introduced me to a lovely trail not far from my home--one I'd never known was there:

We wandered in the direction of a nearby duckpond:

And then we exchanged poems in the shade.  

As always I was blown away by the precise intelligence at play in Lisa's poems.  Here's one I've admired for a while now, the title poem from her recently published book.

Love Recidivus

Whatever it may be, we may suppose

it is not love, for love must leave its trace

like contraband seized and displayed in rows;

is not sufficient reason to erase

the careful lives we have so far lived through—

there is no call for us to undermine

the walls we've built; no need to think anew

of all the chains and choices that define

us still. And yet for all our fine intent

a single touch ignites the night and tries

resolve past all resisting. What we meant

before we mean again; fidelities

have yet been known to shift and come undone

and all good reasons fail us, one by one.