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David Wagoner (1926–2021) was considered the defining voice of the Pacific Northwest. The author of more than twenty poetry collections, including The Nesting Ground, In Broken Country, and After the Point of No Return, he also published ten acclaimed novels, among them The Escape Artist, adapted for the screen by Francis Ford Coppola. A recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Wagoner was professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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Mother’s Night

by David Wagoner
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She’s celebrating it for me. She’s coming back
from the place where she was scattered, from the place
where she was introduced to medical students
and their teachers and was slowly taken apart,
back from where she lost herself among nurses,

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  • David, I was overwhelmed by the pictures you dedicated to your...
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