What Matters Most | Ep. 1 Adam Clay
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Introducing What Matters Most, a new video series by and for the Milkweed community. Each week, one of our authors will reflect on daily nourishments in their lives — people, objects, traditions, places, plants, and more—that bring them strength, joy, solace, or peace. What Matters Most was born out of our collective acknowledgment that times of uncertainty cement the importance of the things—big and small—that give our lives meaning. For us at Milkweed, it is our community of readers, authors and donors that matters most and who seed the publishing of literature that changes lives. While we are physically distant, it is our hope that through these videos, you’ll feel more connected—to our authors, to Milkweed, and to each other.
In this first installment of What Matters Most, poet Adam Clay greets us from his front porch and shares how he centers himself through the simple act of reading a few beautiful lines from a poem. Adam is the author of To Make Room for the Sea, Stranger, and A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World.
In the last few weeks, so many of you have reached out to buy books, give donations, and ask how you can help Milkweed Editions and the writers we serve weather these challenging times. We are so grateful. In response to the last question, if you’re able, please consider joining our community of monthly supporters. Together your sustaining gifts provide a strong foundation that we can count on. Milkweed has been and will continue to be here for you and because of you.
Adam Clay
Adam Clay is the author of five collections of poems: Circle Back, To Make Room for the Sea, Stranger, A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World, and The Wash.
To Make Room for the Sea reckons with the notion that nothing in this world is permanent.
Elegant and contemplative, these poems explore what it means for our lives to change—dwelling on the moments decisions are made, from a move to a new job to the birth of a child, and the repercussions we grow with afterward. This collection stares into the heart of transition and finds wisdom there.
These haunting and crystalline poems examine the moment when solitude slips into separation, when a person realizes he can barely see the place he set out from, and must make his way back to the present. In this journey, Thoreau’s “border life” between civilization and wildness is realized in all its possibilities and difficulties.
