Smelling the Wind 3/24/22, 10:15 AM

POETRY IN MOTION

NEW YORK

Smelling the Wind

Audre Lorde

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Smelling the Wind 3/24/22, 10:15 AM

Smelling the Wind

Rushing headlong
into new silence
your face
dips on my horizon
the name
of a cherished dream
riding my anchor
one sweet season
to cast off
on another voyage

No reckoning allowed
save the marvelous arithmetics
of distance

This poem appears in Audre Lorde's collection The Collected Poems of Audre
Lorde (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000). Beacons (2019) © Rico Gatson, MTA NYC
Transit 167 St. Station.

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Smelling the Wind 3/24/22, 10:15 AM

Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, Audre Lorde portrait derived from a
photograph by Jack Mitchell. Photo by Seong Kwon.

You can purchase the volume here.

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