I have long appreciated three poems that I associate with each other and have written about before: "A Brief for the Defense", by Jack Gilbert (1925-2012); "Good Bones", by Maggie Smith (b. 1977); and "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" (Spróbuj opiewać okaleczony świat"), by Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021), translated from Polish by Clare Cavanaugh (b. 1956). Over the years, I have occasionally mentioned them in classes, but only this week will I be discussing them separately and together with students. While preparing the session this afternoon, I was thrilled to dig into these poems and see how they are even richer and more complex than I had already thought they were. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 2 November 2026)