Today is  Anna Akhmatova’s birthday. She’s one one of the the world’s most renowned poets–who wrote about love and Stalinist Russia.  I was introduced to her work by John Dufresne about thirteen years ago.

Here’s my thinking: Poets, if you’re smart, read her! And, dear Writer’s, read her to learn precision and compression!

Now the pillow’s

hot on both sides.
A second candle
dies, the ravens cry
there, endlessly.
No sleep all night,
too late to think of sleep…
How unbearably white
the blind’s white deep.
Hello, Morning!