What Are Words

ISSUE: Summer 2020

What are words when they meet the action
of what they attempt to modify?
What is snow, but series on series of crystals of ice.
What is pollen, but a golden granular element of microscopic grains
released from the male part of a flower.
What are weeds, but the aftermath of seeds the wind blows
into a yard & threatens to overtake.
What is grass, but a blade of energy & a single instance of a mass.

Jill Bialosky

Jill Bialosky is the author of four volumes of poetry, including The Players (Knopf, 2015) and the forthcoming Asylum: A Personal, Historical and Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections (Knopf, 2020); three novels, House Under Snow (Harcourt, 2002), The Life Room (Harcourt, 2007), and The Prize (Counterpoint, 2015); and two works of prose, History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life (Atria, 2011) and Poetry Will Save Your Life (Atria, 2017) .