Constant Reader discussion

This poem was published in The Atlantic July 2025 issue. It resonated with me. Arthur Sze received the 2025 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. He is the author, most recently, of Into the Hush and The White Orchard.

Under a Supermoon
By Arthur Sze

Gazing at a supermoon when a portion of Earth's shadow
slides across the lunar surface,

I have no desire to twirl in space on an oxygenating cord;
I have no desire to plunge

to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and observe snailfish.
On the highway, someone

is driving to lab, to pueblo, to abandoned uranium mine
and is always driving farther,

driving faster. I slow it down and rejoice in minutiae:
a gold flare in cottonwood leaves,

the smell of split piñon and juniper in a garage,
and recall Blake's

if the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
I don't know that I am any wiser,

but I have persevered; as I gaze at the darkening craters
and smell apples on branches

and on grass, I catch how this life has exploding, exploded,
and birthing stars inside it.

Beautiful. What an ending! Wow!

I agree wholeheartedly, Ruth. And your opinion matters to me so I’m delighted by your reaction.

That's a heck of a line.

I love this poem, its celebration of encounters with beauty that one may miss by "driving farther, driving faster."

And I love the moon!