The sun that puts its spokes in every
Wheel of manhandle and tree

Derives its path of seashines
(Spiritual centrality) from my

Regard. I sent it
My regards. Some yards

Of lumen from the fabrika
Have come unbolted in the likes

Of it, or maybe
In the likes of me — a long

Unweaving or recarding I
Cannot recall begun — and there

Before my eyes the palm
Puts lashes round the sun.

by Heather McHugh

© Heather McHugh, 2009

Heather McHugh, a 2009 MacArthur Fellow, is the author of thirteen books of poetry, translation, and literary essays, including a Griffin International Poetry Prize translation, as well as Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist volumes. McHugh has taught literature and writing for over three decades, most regularly at the University of Washington in Seattle and in the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. From 1999 to 2005 she served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in 2000 she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In Upgraded to Serious (Copper Canyon Press, 2009), the book from which ‘Dark View’ comes, McHugh presents a fast-paced, verbally dexterous, and brilliantly humorous book. Utilizing medical terminology to work through loss and detachment, McHugh’s sly rhymes and rhythms talk of love, raised hackles, and much in between. You can read further selections from her new collection at this page.

Copper Canyon Press is a non-profit publisher that believes poetry is vital to language and living. For thirty-five years, the Press has fostered the work of emerging, established, and world-renowned poets for an expanding audience. To find out more about Copper Canyon and its publications, click here.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.