These poems were gathered from a group of writers with a wide range of relation to Bernadette: friends, lovers, students, readers, admirers. Some of the poems are collaborations with Bernadette, some are inspired by her friendship and her singular way, and some were stoked by any number of her endlessly useful list of experiments. In the spirit of her contributions to our practice as writers, her encouragement for more and more of our poems, we hope you take these poems as each their own invitation to your life and writing—as Don Yorty, Philip Good, and Bernadette herself invite:

“Reader, join us if you want to. Let’s eat!”