from Love in the Time of War
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- From Love in the Time of War
Tonight, the old hard work of love has given up. I can't unbutton promises or sing secrets into your left ear tuned to quivering plucked strings. No, please. I can't face the reflection of metal on your skin & in your eyes, can't risk weaving new breath into war fog. The anger of the trees is rooted in the soil. Let me drink in your newly found river of sighs, your way with incantations. Let me see if I can't string this guitar & take down your effigy of moonlight From the cross, the dogwood in bloom printed on memory's see-through cloth.
Yusef Komunyakaa, the subject of this issue of Callaloo, teaches at Princeton University. His most recent book of poems is Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part I. The numerous prizes, awards and honors he has received for his poetry include a chancellorship with the American Academy of Poets, the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Wesleyan University), the William Faulkner Prize (Universite Rennes, France), the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
