At the Equinox BY ARTHUR SZE

Arthur Sze was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress. According the the Guardian the 74 year-od poet/translator during a recent Zoom interview with the Associated Press Sze acknowledged some misgivings when Rob Casper, who heads the library’s poetry and literature center, called him in June about becoming the next laureate. He wondered about the level of responsibilities and he worried about the upheaval since Donald Trump fired the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, in May. After thinking about it overnight, he called Casper back and happily accepted.

Well done.

It's September 15. A week away from the vernal eqionox.The days are shorter. Only a month ago sunset was after 8. Today it will be at 7:06 in NYC. A pleasant afternoon. Arthur Sze lives in New York He is a year younger than me. The great unkonown. I wish him the best and later I'll read his AT THE EQUINOX to the wind. Poetry always is better read aloud.

The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars. I have no theory of radiance,

but after rain evaporates off pine needles, the needles glisten.

In the courtyard, we spot the rising shell of a moon, and, at the equinox, bathe in its gleam.

Using all the tides of starlight, we find vicissitude is our charm.

On the mud flats off Homer, I catch the tremor when waves start to slide back in;

and, from Roanoke, you carry the leafing jade smoke of willows.

Looping out into the world, we thread and return. The lapping waves

cover an expanse of mussels clustered on rocks; and, giving shape to what is unspoken, forsythia buds and blooms in our arms.