In a Few Minutes Before Later - Brenda Hillman

n[Hillman's] work is fierce but loving, risk-taking, and beautiful. --Harvard Review n nFinalist for the Four Quartets Prize, given by Poetry Society of America, 2023 n nAn iconoclastic ecopoet who has led the way for many young and emerging artists, Brenda Hillman continues to re-cast innovative poetic forms as instruments for tracking human and non-human experiences. At times the poet deploys short dialogues, meditations or trance techniques as means of rendering inner states; other times she uses narrative, documentary or scientific materials to record daily events during a time of pandemic, planetary crisis, political and racial turmoil.

Hillman proposes that poetry offers courage even in times of existential peril; her work represents what is most necessary and fresh in American poetry. n nDuring an enchantment in the life n n nDo you love a living person n absolutely? Tell them now.

nIn a half-unwieldy life you made, under nthe hyaline sky, while the dead n drank from zigzag pools nearby, nif they saved you in your wild incapacities, n n in timing of the world's harm nin a little pettiness in your own heart while others took n your madrigals in shreds to a tribunal, n when others said you should feel grateful n to be minimally adequate for the world's ntriple exposure or some tired committee... n n The ones who love us, how do they nbreak through our defenses? n We're tired today.

Come back later. nTheir baffled voices melting our wax walls nwith a candle, the ones who understand nwhat being is--the glowing, the broken, n nthe wheels, the brave ones-- n they have their courage, nyou have yours; n when you meet the one you love, nit is so rare. When you meet nthe one who loves you, it is extremely rare.n