Nicholas Gulig

Nicholas Gulig is a Thai American poet from Wisconsin. He is the author of Orient (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2018), winner of the 2017 CSU Poetry Center Open Book Competition; Book of Lake (CutBank, 2016); and North of Order (YesYes Boor5wIn 2023, he was appointed poet laureate of Wisconsin through 2024. In 2023, Gulig received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. 

Grove of Meaning

In the middle of September, after everything

we loved had ended, the day remained

a sound pronounced among

emergencies. It was almost

beautiful. A scrawl of voices shook an opposition

through the trees and I believed them.

What is not forgiveable?

Among the black metallic structure

of my language, imperfect

in the present tense, I called to you

across the open grove

and listened. Terror-struck and tethered

to each other, we lived and breathed and were surrounded

by our speaking. The leaves descended

like the inconsistent weather of the law. Our voices

carried them. Ungoverernable, the sun, the sun, the sun

— Nicholas Gulig