And Yet.*

G-d please help and bless

me though I know it's what You

do bless me and all

k

My poems are my

blankets of protection and

flotation cushions

kmnnnn

Perhaps I shouldn't

be here writing in this space

and yet and yet and

,,n

===========================

onn

* Nicole Krauss, in The History of Love, taught me many things, including - but not only - that "and yet" (like "no") can be a full sentence. I cherish "and yet" along with Nicole's inscription, which she wrote after holding back the Barnes and Noble line, asking about me, before signing, "For Neil With Luck And Hope." I sometimes think/know that it's time to make new space on the shelf and let the book go. And yet. How do you let go of, "Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a house across the field from a girl who no longer exists... They collected the world in small handfuls... Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering...?" You let go if you have to. And yet.-And yet. And yet.