Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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In Memoriam |

William’s Hand

By David Baker

Forty years of friendship one brown
photograph to show for it

how little it comes to
William’s open hand

reaching through the fence
not by it do we know him

nor the corded barn-coat sleeve
nor ringless fingers

but the new colt come to see him
bowing his sleek neck
                                        back to the earth—

David Baker is the author or editor of many books of poetry and criticism. His latest collection of poems, Whale Fall, was published by W. W. Norton in July 2022. Baker taught at Kenyon 1983–84 and began a long association with The Kenyon Review then, including service for more than twenty-five years as poetry editor. He continues to curate the magazine’s annual environmental feature, “Nature’s Nature.” Baker is emeritus professor of English at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio, where he offers two classes each spring semester.

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