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 RecidivusWhatever it may be, we may supposeit is not love, for love must leave its tracelike 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 underminethe walls we've built; no need to think anewof all the chains and choices that define

us still. And yet for all our fine intenta single touch ignites the night and triesresolve past all resisting. What we meantbefore we mean again; fidelities

have yet been known to shift and come undoneand all good reasons fail us, one by one.