What Can Make You Jump

US Poet Laureate Billy Collins once said, "Not since Taylor Mali has there been a poet of the likes of Taylor Mali"

Oh so true! Mali translates his academic mastery of the English lanaguage into a highly polished and accessible delivery. He writes about things we all can relate to in a way that we all wish that we could. This is one cool cat!!

Anyway...while listening to some old poetry podcasts, I found this oldie but goodie that always makes me tear up. A poem about his late wife...


Depression, too, is a kind of fire
BY Taylor Mali

...and I was going to write a poem
about how fire is the only thing
that can make a person jump out a window.

And maybe I’m an idiot for thinking I could have saved her—
call me her knight in shattered armor—
could have loved her more,
or told the truth about children.

But depression, too, is a kind of fire.
And I know nothing of either.

Text from Spindle Magazine