"The First Lightbulb," Cole Swensen

precise erase

a gate again
where the sky died
in a coin

From Goest, a 2004 National Book Award nominee.

Another poem from this collection, "Razed Cities," appeared in Poets Against the War. Several earlier poems were published by Free Verse, which also interviewed the poet about her work. She is the former translation coordinator of How2, an online offshoot of HOWever and is currently on the faculty at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Last fall, Identity Theory ran an essay by her called "Poetry City."