In this free-flowing online lecture with audience Q&A, poet Ariana Reines presents the mystical experience at the close of her award-winning A Sand Book (Tin House 2019) in context with the social, political, and personal upheaval that inspired her to complete The Rose (Graywolf 2025) and Wave of Blood (Divided 2024) simultaneously. What exactly does poetic speech have to do with the evolution of consciousness, and where and how do romance and grief animate the most important cultural artifacts we have?

Image: excerpted from Edward Munch, The Sun, 1911.