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Winter 1988 • Vol. X No. 1 • Poetry |

At Walt Whitman’s Birthplace, Huntington, Long Island

At night, before the dark swells of sleep,
Walt, I think of your strong arms

that embrace whole cities, vast membranes
of streetlamp and neon, lit by the inner electric

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Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including The Zookeeper's Wife and A Natural History of the Senses.

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Soft Lens

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Water held by a curve, it bridges the invisible oceans of light with a single continent, is fragile as dust, yet anchors the Mayan profile of the moon among night-swarming […]

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