Chord

That art should once have been markedwith this delicacy: always only oneof each thing made, so that your poemhas its one life on the sheetyou have chosen for it, or the snapshotof the birthday party, everythingin the room upended by the children'sjubilation, survives onlyin the single defended piece of glass.Rick Barot was born in the Philippines, and received his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of The Darker Fall and Want and teaches at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.