“The throughline of these poems is connection—how we connect with ourselves, our history, our future, each other. But it is more than that. These poems embody compassion. A willingness to hold space, to grant grace - to the extent it is ours to offer.”

“The difficult truth is we are at war: the front line—our neighborhoods, schools, churches, streets, and parks. Hatred—domestic terrorism—is a disease as lethal as any we’ve faced. We need to acknowledge it. To come together to ensure everyone’s opportunity to thrive. That is, in my mind, the point of civilization—our obligation and right as members of a civil society. Acts of terror threaten what we hold sacred: life and liberty, yes, but ultimately, I hope, each other.”

“Walking in moon’s light
I seek white fragrant flowers
For fresh Covid graves.”

“Words are seeds, a celebration of identity and as essential to survival as air, as water, as food. These poems are our cultural seedbank, our nagaul, not secured in a remote vault or sequestered in conservancies, but alive on the page, ‘[dancing] as if on fire, as if at fiesta’ (Sanchez, 2024).”

“These monsters aren’t among us; they are us. We are all monsters, all gods, all products of our own imagining.”

“If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden.”

“Measure wealth by how well you enjoy the hours
fluttering by in praise of sunshine and the ocean breeze,
whispering love songs across waves that kiss the beach.
This wealth takes work, and absolutely no work at all.”

“We are each other’s keystones
lose one & the bridge collapses”

“This anthology celebrates the beating heart of a forest, the liveliness of a stream, the wit of the wind and our own existence - all entwined. It is a recognition that a forest - even a lone tree - is not a separate entity or (merely) a commodity. Forests contain multitudes - indeed, an entire universe.”

“Color is a guidepost,
a cairn along the trail, gesturing:
this way, this way, this way to….
But I am here to wander,
and choose curiosity as my guide.
Getting lost is to be expected;
indeed, it is anticipated:
the secret sauce
is discovery.”

“What are we without
our machines? Barely evolved;
hermit crabs afoot.”

“Not everything expressed
Is meant to be understood
It is enough to leave an imprint
On surface or psyche.”

“The struggle for equality is, in truth, a struggle between our ideals and our self-interest, the haves and have-nots, the past and an emergent future.”

“In order to understand the present, we need to understand our history and, in particular, to look beyond stated intent to observe the practical impact of legislation, policy and practices.”