CONTENTS Introduction: Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler ix Editors' Note xii Infinite Obligation to the Other: Carolyn Forché 2 The Devotion of a Mourner: Gerald Stern 20 Doubt and Seeking: Kazim Ali 32 The Circular Path: Jane Hirshfield 46 What Remains Unseen: Jean Valentine 66 The Possibility of God: Jericho Brown 80 Inches of Progress: Grace Paley 94 Footsteps Over Ground: Fanny Howe 106 The Subject Is Silence: Li-Young Lee 120 God the Mother: Alicia Ostriker 134 To Be of Service: Marilyn Nelson 150 Incantation: Annie Finch 164 Not a Butler to the Soul: G. C. Waldrep 180 Beyond Time and Place: Joy Harjo 202 Natives of the Earth: Eleanor Wilner 214 A Convert's Story: Julius Lester 228 Nimble Believing: Christian Wiman 242 Homelands: Dunya Mikhail 256 The Given: Gregory Orr 272 Acknowledgments 289.