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Hi, Friend.

I posted a couple of days ago on social media that I’m not quite to “You could make this place beautiful” yet. I believe it, and that hasn’t changed. I’m glad to see that some people are in that headspace and heartspace already, sharing “Good Bones.” I know I’ll get there. I always get there, and I have to get there, frankly, in order to parent and write and live. But today I’m here, in another poem from Goldenrod, “How Dark the Beginning.”

Sending love to wherever you are, and thinking about what you might be carrying. Sending love, which is more powerful than anything we’re up against. I still believe that.

The text of the poem is below. Take care out there.

Love,
Maggie

How Dark the Beginning

All we ever talk of is light—
let there be light, there was light then,

good light—but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.

So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognize

as morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won’t break

over us—as if  light were protective,
as if  no hearts were flayed,

no bodies broken on a day
like today. In any film,

the sunrise tells us everything
will be all right. Danger wouldn’t

dare show up now, dragging
its shadow across the screen.

We talk so much of  light, please
let me speak on behalf

of  the good dark. Let us
talk more of how dark

the beginning of a day is.

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For Dear Life with Maggie Smith
For Dear Life with Maggie Smith
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Maggie Smith