Whenever I teach a seminar on T. S. Eliot’s work, I spend the first day of class on ‘Marina.’

Oh, chalice of raindrops

I replied, they say, cool as milk

Scientists haven’t studied the isotopes of heartache

Like little sunsets, like a song of ascents, I wish to remember my father.

These are poems that grip your heart, stretch your mind and startle your soul awake.