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Pádraig Ó Tuama's Poetry Unbound podcast recently began a new season. I was moved by the latest episode on Michael Kleber-Diggs' "Gloria Mundi" and had small cathartic cry during my noontime walk.

Pádraig underlines the humbleness of the poetic narrator's request in how to be remembered at his death; embracing the smallness, the transience.

I had a tangential thought about anyone who has ever been romantically left, dumped (and this is not foreboding or foreshadowing, just me being my usual foolish nostalgic self) - the most humble yet magnanimous stance I can think of is to sincerely wish the other person doesn't regret leaving you. I can barely even imagine putting aside one's ego and leaning into that.

I guess to really live that, you'd either have to be extremely satisfied with your life, or have absolutely extreme self-image problems. But Kleber-Diggs points to another way of framing such things, as accepting being a small, transient part of the grander narratives.

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I'm the best there is at what I do, but mostly what I do is gather nuts for winter.