Emerging Poet Award Finalist: “I would I were” by Emily Harwitz

I would I were

I concur, thy bird 

of another mother, 

earthbound feather

wing of my being beating

air inside my lungs 

pushing past the gift

of fulfilled dreaming, 

the present

is yet unknown

to the trailing edge of yesterday’s 

desires, creating

 lift 

in the

(  vacuum  ) 

under stars where bodies sleep

softly towards the sun, and there 

is light, let there be

a question

to fill the space

where ( I ) was 

there, just a moment before 

the particles 

found my (niche), filled me in

on a peculiar answer:

You saw?

 I came— 

We flew.

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MAVERICK POET AWARD FINALIST “I would I were”

Emily Harwitz is a naturalist and storyteller whose work celebrates the beauty and diversity of life while raising awareness to protect it. With a background in chemistry and ecology, she enjoys telling stories that explore and expand our connections to nature and each other while investigating how identity, science, and art intersect. By day, she is a science and environmental journalist, writer, and photographer. By night, she writes poetry with her gecko Enkidu in the light of the moon. She is also a flutist and lover of fine tea. While currently living on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land/San Francisco, she also has roots in Miami and 北京。Her poem "I would I were" explores the physics of intellectual flight towards an ecological collective consciousness.