from ‘For a Daughter/No Address’

from ‘For a Daughter/No Address’

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Reportless Subjects, to the Quick / Continual addressed—
—Emily Dickinson

if what etches into your eyes leaves a small canyon     in its trough
is there the chattering speech
I don’t think it’s enough to say images     seen     the still Aleppo pine needles
a tarp billowing at the lower winds are a weather     how long could you look

in the foreground at a wet child who isn’t you
the two bits of peeling white light she tossed into us feel like a skein
a weight     water falling down your back in the bath     a salted
silver-edged negative pressing you to the steady light impulse
neither of us will absorb     winking in it all the while by its known waves
the state’s cargo planes keep from folding into our street

having lost a few peoples running in superfluity the sky behaves itself
over bamboo that grows here wild or bedded     with river stones hauled
come to rest their smoothing ends but not the infinitive daughter
gone to run away with water as one of her rhymes

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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