Granta, Spring 2010

‘How would you ever understand the places to which I’ve travelled?’, ends Mark Doty in The Unwriteable. Of life lived without those whom it began with but not continued, there is always a tinge of longing. At the same time what one fails to see often is the upside of the remaining journey which brings along people and places that perhaps are more satisfying and nourishing. Optimism is hard work to begin with.