I’m pleased to announce that my poem “Nantes” is being published in a limited-edition chapbook this fall. The 2Horatio Chapbook was conceived in, and is a celebration of, my teacher Elaine Sexton’s fantastic and illuminating private poetry workshops. It includes poems from the many writers who have passed through or are still a part of Elaine’s workshop group or who have somehow mentored the writers in the group. Elaine has also contributed a poem, and her beautiful new poetry collection Prospect/Refuge is out now from Sheep Meadow Press so, shameless promotion.

To celebrate the publication, there’s a launch reading tomorrow night, Oct. 21, at the NYPL, Jefferson Market Branch, 425 6th Avenue. The reading is from 6 to 8 pm. Show up early to talk to a bunch of poets. Disclosure: it’s a marathon reading with 20+ poets, but I will keep my pieces short.

There will be copies of the chapbook for sale at the reading, but for anyone unable to attend or purchase, below is the text of my poem. I wrote it en route to Nantes, France this past spring, obviously. Hope to see you tomorrow night.

Nantes

thousands of miles

& three hours of sleep

later, distance arrives

first & beautiful

waiting at a loud station,

Atlantic ice lucid, thick

Air France coffee keeping

me a marionette unwound

something sank into the

ocean on the way over,

love scaled the altitude,

shimmered in the turbulence

& the hours ran ahead

of me to wait at the

Charles de Gaulle gates--

fencing with questions

from friends, how

to explain that trains

are never lost in their

crawl across geography

the twilight in Nantes is

riddled with quiet, a lattice-

work of telephone wires

with strange birds on them

& no one is as real

as the knots & nests

tangled in branches

cutting the nude lilac sky

when the red brick

rooftops layer into

an impasto of sleep,

I am left thinking among

yellow mimosa sprays

& pink paper roses,

that alone arrives

last & beautiful