http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103308.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Dana Gioia Retires. He was quite a  chap, after all. Check out his work for the National Endowment for the Arts; in retrospect, it is quite impressive.

I’m glad he’ll get some time to write for himself. 

—

The stars now rearrange themselves above you

but to no effect. Tonight,
only for tonight, their powers lapse,
and you must look toward earth. There will be
no comets now, no pointing star
to lead where you know you must go.

Look for smaller signs instead, the fine
disturbances of ordered things when suddenly
the rhythms of your expectation break
and in a moment’s pause another world
reveals itself behind the ordinary.

And one small detail out of place will be
enough to let you know: a missing ring,
a breath, a footfall or a sudden breeze,
a crack of light beneath a darkened door.

- Dana Gioia, from “Daily Horoscope”

– KW