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November 2017 Issue
November 2017 Cover
The crucial hours after a fraternity pledge’s fall, what Thoreau really saw, and the secrets of Google’s moonshot factory. Plus, the enduring appeal of Joni Mitchell, the science behind Mona Lisa’s smile, and more. View Magazine
  • The Science Behind Mona Lisa’s Smile
    Walter Isaacson
  • Google X and the Science of Radical Creativity
    Derek Thompson
  • Mayonnaise, Disrupted
    Bianca Bosker
  • Death at a Penn State Fraternity
    Caitlin Flanagan
  • Walden Wasn’t Thoreau’s Masterpiece
    Andrea Wulf
  • The Swamp Lover
    Henry David Thoreau
Culture

Small as a Seed

A poem

By Elizabeth Spires
November 2017 Issue

In everything, its opposite.
In the sun’s ascendancy,
its downfall.
In darkness, light
not yet apprehended.

At night in bed, I fear the falling-off.
Though falling, I will rise.
I fear. Fall arriving now.
In any word so small, the world.
In the world I walk in, a wild wood.

About the Author

Elizabeth Spires
Elizabeth Spires’s most recent collection is A Memory of the Future.

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