When I first heard the story, I was Persephone, 
feet in the blossoms, oblivious, 
on the edge of another world. 

Once the pomegranate broke on my own doorstep, 
I found the summer, but too soon became Demeter, 
searching for my child, calling into that underworld, 

thinking of the third season, harvest or loss, 
that might arrive before its time 
and take away the world. 

—From the poet’s forthcoming book, Questions From Outer Space, and previously published in La Piccioletta Barca (Issue 28, February 2021); appears here with her permission.

Diane Thiel

is the author of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, including Echolocations and Resistance Fantasies. Her new book of poetry, Questions from Outer Space, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. Thiel’s work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, The Hudson Review, Rattle, and the Sewanee Review, and is re-printed in more than sixty major anthologies. Her awards include a PEN award, the Robinson Jeffers Award, the Robert Frost Award, the Nicholas Roerich Award, and an NEA Award, and she was a Fulbright Scholar.

Thiel received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Brown University and is Professor of English and Associate Chair at the University of New Mexico. She has traveled and lived in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, working on literary and environmental projects.

More information, including readings and lectures, may be found at her website: www.dianethiel.net

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ The Minefield by Diane Thiel, first published in Best American Poetry 1999 and reprinted numerous times, including in KYSO Flash (Issue 6, Fall 2016)