Even We

by Tyler Friend

 

            after H.D.’s “Evening”

We pass light
back & forth, from ridge

to ridge & flower to
flower. We ourselves

flower, become. We grow
faint, reach inward, blue

& lost, our hearts—
blue. Our buds are still

& shadowed. We
root, leaving leaves

& turning away from
the glass, at last.

 

Tyler Friend is a non-binary poet & designer from Tennessee, and they received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Tyler edits the online magazine Francis House and designs for Eulalia Books.

 

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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Even We”?

This piece comes from a series of rewritten H.D. poems. I’ve long felt very attached to H.D. and found much of my own self in her work, so this practice feels a little bit like collaborating with myself, or a past-self. Some poems retain more of their original language or meaning than others; often there is a we; they all seem to end up in couplets.

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