Emissary

Poetry

Emissary

In the evening a green lacewing

perched on the edge of my book,

its shadow a feathery stain across the page.

Trapping it in the cave of my hand,

I walked through the house

turning off the lights one by one

until it was dark and mostly silent.

Now on the porch I opened my hand

and the lacewing disappeared,

revealing the headland beyond

glowing like an emerald in the night.

—Ian Boyden

[This poem originally appeared in the artist book Twenty Views of Cascade Head (Crab Quill Press, 2001).]

Constellations of Humanity

Each luminous dot on this map represents one reader of this poem. As the number of readers increases, the stars begin to cluster and form an increasingly detailed constellation. My intent is to show how brightly a poem glows across our world. I welcome your light.