It is said that in war the muses are silent. My experience has been the other way around. In times of misfortune, intuition and sensitivity to the suffering of others is exacerbated, and the passion of love makes the writing fluid, natural and true. The same thing happens now, in these tragic days, when the coronavirus pandemic still continues its assault. The nightmare does not subside, but countertide poetry emerges from it, the poetry of the pandemic. I find it essential to pause the ongoing suffering and take a look around. The result is this volume, these poems.

They are here, like members of a family gathered around a campsite, or like members of a body - of several bodies - brought together by the desire to delve into the past, to pretend to be alive with a relentless desire to find and repeat the sweetest and most hopeful words for when life returns.

These poems are like what remains after a tornado destroys a home and we see the most intimate objects left scattered and lonely.

Contemporary and immediate are the collections "Fifteen Essential Victims of Misfortune" and "A Working Day in Lockdown," which attempt to provide a testimony of this life during COVID. (G.L.)