Lately I’ve caught myself saying things like “if a culture gets poetry right, its politics will take care of itself.” Kudos to Bruce Jacobs and our friends at The Agonist for their Poem for Tuesday feature, which reminds us each week of the true, transcendent power of words. Today Bruce offers up something from Mark Doty. A snippet:

What these salt distances were

is also where they’re going:
from blankly silvered span

toward specificity: the curve
of certain brave islands of grass,

temporary shoulder-wide rivers
where herons ply their twin trades

of study and desire. I’ve seen
two white emissaries unfold

like heaven’s linen, untouched,
enormous, a fluid exhalation.

Read the rest of the post here. If you like what you see, the entirety of Doty’s long poem can be found at the Poetry Foundation site.