If the air
entering us,
doing the work,
that we call ‘breath’
were enough,
then asking for ‘more’
would fall out of use:
the artifacts of a tomb,
useless, touching;
the stories grownups told
of a world they wanted
to believe was true.
Celia Gilbert is the winner of a Discovery Award, an Emily Dickinson Award, a Consuelo Ford Award from the Poetry Society of America, and a Pushcart Prize IX. Her work has frequently been anthologized and has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Southwest Review. Her books include Something to Exchange (BlazeVOX[books] 2009); Cos Na Wymiane, collected works in Polish, 2009; An Ark of Sorts (Alice James Books), winner of the first Jane Kenyon Chapbook Award; Bonfire (Alice James Books); and Queen of Darkness (Viking). Most recently her art and poetry have appeared online at The Tower Journal. Her work will also appear on www.springhousejournal.com.
