May Swenson’s “Question” is one of those poems perpetually knocking around in my mind. Her questions focus on  the self unhoused from the body. While you are still embodied, what questions do you have for the body? The one you live in, the one you are, right now. 

Question by May Swenson (1913–1989)

Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do 
when you are fallen
 
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
 
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
 
How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
 
With cloud for shift
how will I hide?

 
From New & Selected Things Taking Place by May Swenson. Copyright © 1978 by the estate of May Swenson. Reprinted by permission of the estate of May Swenson. All rights reserved.

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Zoë Ryder White’s (she/her) first full-length collection, The Visible Field was published by River River Books in February, 2026. She authored the chapbooks Via Post (Sixth Finch Press, 2022) and HYPERSPACE (Factory Hollow Press, 2020) and co-authored A Study in Spring (Rabbit Catastrophe Press, 2015) and Elsewhere (Sixth Finch Press, 2020) with Nicole Callihan. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her family.