Armaghan Afaridel

“How weightless
words are when nothing will do.

from “Gospel”
― Philip Levine, Breath

“Even a painful longing is some form of presence.

from “A Nest of Quiet: A Notebook,” trans. Clare Cavanagh, Poetry (1 May 2012)”
― Anna Kamieńska

“Kept Burning and Distant”

You return when you feel like it, like rain.
And like rain you are tender, with the rain's inept tenderness.
A passion so general I could be anywhere.
You carry me out into the wet air.
You lay me down on the leaves and the strong thing is not the sex,
But waking up alone under the tress after.”
― Linda Gregg, The Sacraments of Desire: Poems