Two Poems by Joseph Fasano

At the Winter Solstice

Even the will will return again. 

Even the love, the wonder.

Darken. The heart 
can love this.

And the new moon changing in the maples. 

And the grief like black oars in the rafters.

And the branches that have let go 
of everything, saying
wait, just stay
in your changes;
you have hated
your one life
long enough.
Try something wondrous.
Trust it.

How to Survive

Love the small things of the earth. 
The dust. The dark rain in the lemon trees.
The sound of moonflowers opening 
at evening. Love them 
even when the sky is burning, 
even when a mother crouches with her child
in a dark room, wetting his lips 
with a small glass of water. Love them 
quietly, quietly but ferociously, 
their hearts in them like flocks 
the wind has furled. 

And then, in the spring, if the world 
has survived, walk out 
with your gift that you have practiced, 
your fresh gift that has ripened in secret;
lie down in the long, soft grass of summer
and wait for love, wait for it 
to find you, 
and when it lays its hand at last 
upon your shoulder, open 
to all that is about to happen; 
rise up and walk off into the lemon trees 

and live awhile, live awhile 
with someone—their eyes, their scent, their curls—
and when love departs, when love 
is done and fallen, stand there 
in the coming winds of autumn 
and turn back to the small things 
that have been with you— 
buttons, apples, chapters— 
and then, because you've practiced this
forever, because you are ready now 
for the hardest task of all of them, 

lay your hand on the changed face in the mirror
and look at it— 
its wounds, its crimes, its changes— 
and tell yourself what you see
deserves your mercy—that face, that name, that stranger—
and place your palms on that one life in the mirror
and open to the whole of it, the whole of it, 
and love it like the last chance of the world.


Joseph Fasano is a poet, novelist, songwriter, and teacher.  His books include The Last Song of the World (BOA Editions, 2024), The Swallows of Lunetto (2022), The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (2020), The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other Hands (2013).  His work has been widely translated and anthologized, most recently in The Forward Book of Poetry (Faber and Faber).  He curates the Daily Poetry Thread on Twitter/X, and he is the founder of The Poetry Lifeline.  His book of poetry prompts and creativity tools, The Magic Words, is available from Penguin Random House.

josephfasano.net

@joseph.fasano

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