I call recall that afternoon I received the message that I had been nominated for this wonderful opportunity – to live and make art in a castle! – and still today, some six weeks into my residency, the news is just as incredible. I spent my first few days here marveling at the overwhelming weight that this Italian landscape impresses on a person, eventually leading me to think specifically about my place – my particular body – within that landscape, within any. What I’ve been writing, therefore, are poems that I hope critically interrogate the erotics of my body—the ways it enters certain spaces, the ways it has itself been entered. We’ll see where it goes . . . But to be amongst so many interesting, innovative and talented artists at Civitella did give me license to experiment, to take risks, not only via the writing but via visual art and photography which (I’m learning) occupy at least one other half of my brain. I am forever grateful.