• ‘A Brief for the Defense’, by Jack Gilbert
• A reading from an interview entitled ‘A Life Worthy of Our Breath’ by Krista Tippett, for her ‘On Being’ radio broadcast on U.S. public radio with Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese-American writer, teacher, poet, and author of a collection of poems, ‘Night Sky with Exit Wounds’. Vuong’s quote I shared that ended the interview concluded: ‘I want to love more than death can harm. And I want to tell you this often: That despite being so human and so terrified, here, standing on this unfinished staircase to nowhere and everywhere, surrounded by the cold and starless night—we can live. And we will’.
• Mary Oliver’s poem ‘The Uses of Sorrow’: ‘Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.’
• Martha Postlethwaite’s ‘Clearing’
Please let me know if I missed anything. Wishing you a safe and joyful week. May there be peace in our hearts, in Ukraine, and in the world. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏼 🌻
