Friends, I’m offering four one-afternoon creative writing workshops via Zoom in August and September. Click here for all the details. Maybe you should treat yourself to a three-hour creative reset – I’d love to see you in the Zoom room!

A few weeks ago I was on an MFA panel with three other writers, talking about the poems we had contributed to The Country in the Mirror: Poems of Protest & Witness. An audience member wondered how to approach difficult topics when writing for children.

Don’t be afraid of laughter, one of the writers said. Don’t be afraid of joy. My God, don’t we need it now more than ever? It felt as if the whole room exhaled when she said this, and I thought of this poem.

Postlude, by Rita Dove

Stay by the hearth, little cricket.
—Cendrillon

You prefer me invisible, no more than
a crisp salute far away from
your silks and firewood and woolens.

Out of sight, I’m merely an annoyance,
one slim, obstinate wrinkle in night’s
deepening trance. When sleep fails,

you wish me shushed and back in my hole.
As usual, you’re not listening: time stops
only if you stop long enough to hear it

passing. This is my business:
I’ve got ten weeks left to croon through.
What you hear is a lifetime of song.