Cinder: New and Selected Poems

“One of the finest poets of the last fifty years.” —Salt

to the Nth, like the truth of an ending
unskeined across the crust of the white field.
Though it happened only once, I
am sending the thought
of the thought
continuing.
To return to
the field before the mowing.
When a goldfinch swayed
on a blue stem stalk,
and the wind and the sun
stirred the hay.

—from “After the Mowing”

Cinder: New and Selected Poems gathers for the first time poetry from across Susan Stewart’s thirty-five-year career, includin...