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Smelling the Wind

Audre Lorde
A vertical poster featuring artwork by Rico Gatson shows Audre Lorde from the hips up, facing forward. Her hands are in her pockets and colorful rays extend behind her. Below this is a poem by Audre Lorde titled Smelling the Wind.

Smelling the Wind

Rushing headlong
into new silence
your face
dips on my horizon
the name
of a cherished dream
riding my anchor
one sweet season
to cast off
on another voyage

No reckoning allowed
save the marvelous arithmetics
of distance



This poem appears in Audre Lorde's collection The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000).  Beacons (2019) © Rico Gatson, MTA NYC Transit 167 St. Station.
Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, Audre Lorde portrait derived from a photograph by Jack Mitchell. Photo by Seong Kwon.

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