A tip of the hat to my friend, poet Ashley McHugh, for bringing Dorothea Grossman’s “The Two Times I Loved You Most In a Car” to my attention. In this two-stanza poem, the speaker recalls two instances in which sensory experience startled her: the quietness of elephants swaying among palm trees, and the appearance of stars in the desert night sky.

(You can read more about Dorothea Grossman here and here.

It’s a beautiful little poem; I’ve been thinking about who the addressed person is (A partner? A parent? A friend?).

What do you think? If you were to write a poem on the same subject, which two experiences would you write about?