We couldn’t have been more tickled to see this poem from RCAH alumna Leila Chatti’s new book “Deluge” in Friday’s New York Times (and selected by friend of the Center for Poetry Naomi Shihab Nye). Be sure to save the evening of Tuesday, April 21 for a reading here with Leila celebrating the release of this stunning collection.
Waking After the Surgery
By Leila Chatti
And just like that, I was whole again
seam like a drawing of an eyelid closed,
gauze resting atop it like a bed
of snow laid quietly in the night
while I was somewhere or something
else, not quite dead, but nearly, freer
my self unlatched for a while as if it were
a dog I had simply released from its leash
or a balloon slipped loose from my grip
in a room with a low ceiling, my life
bouncing back within reach, my life
bounding toward me when called.
The RCAH Center for Poetry at MSU 