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Muni Art 2021 - Derrick Austin Poet Page

from Persian Blue 

Tonight, our thousand and second night,
tell me the story of our laughter
through sudden summer rain.
Tell me the story of salt: on your shoulder,
chest, and chin. Tell me how that first week
we seemed to know our pasts by heart,
where we’d been and where we planned to go.

An excerpt from "Persian Blue" by Derrick Austin from Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016). Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.

Derrick Austin

Headshot of Muni Art 2021 Poet Derrick Austin

Derrick Austin is the author of Trouble the Water (BOA Editions) and Tenderness, forthcoming from BOA in fall 2021. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, New England Review, The Nation, and Tin House. He’s currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Artist Interpretations

Kundan Baidwan

On a dark blue background, concentric circles of gold dots getting sparser and sparser as we move away from the cloudy center. To the left and right are wedges bearing splotches of various colors.

Agustina Caprioglio

In the foreground is silhouettes of two cats. Through the window we see phone lines on a pole and behind that, rain, rows of brightly-colored houses, then trees, then a dark blue sky. To the left behind the trees is an unknown blue object shaped like a rippling hamburger.

John Keating

One person embraces a woman as they stand in front of a yellow stone wall. Behind the wall is a rock formation with a hole in it and behind that the ocean with the moon peeking up over the horizon. Waves beat against the rock formation.

Deirdre Weinberg

Abstract image with a red semicircle hugging the bottom and various shaped, outlined, splotches over an olive-green background.

Wes Wellner

The road curves up to Twin Peaks. Three people, one apart, two together, sit within the curve. In front of the curve are plants and behind it we can see homes behind the hill.