That’s (part of) the title of this piece on the PEN Center website by Rumpus Poetry Book Club Board member Gabrielle Calvocoressi. It’s absolutely beautiful. Here’s a short sample:

“I’m really glad I had that lousy job because I know what it is to make someone copies at the last minute and to be told the coffee is too cold. I know what it’s like to be so proud of the suit you bought at J. Crew and then hate it after you’re told you don’t look the part. I know why those folks are occupying Wall Street and streets all over the world. Lewis says, “Yet why not risk joy?” It’s true and it’s such a hard thing to do. How do you tell a student like Mehnaz Turner, who I am advising for PEN, that risking joy is as hard and essential as any linebreak one can wrestle with? That maybe it comes from the same place.”

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