I prefer the window seat on airplanes. Looking down at the landscape below, I feel like I’m studying a map. Maps give my mind room to roam, to imagine, while also providing a level of specificity I find enchanting. As a child, I loved spreading our atlas across my lap, tracing imaginary journeys with my finger. My mother would call out place names, and I'd search while she knitted or read nearby. 

Christopher Sessums is an emerging poet based in Maine. While studying at the University of Florida, he took poetry courses with William Logan and Debra Greger. He now works at Colby College and stays active in the Maine literary community, attending readings in Portland and Waterville and regularly consulting with poet Adrian Blevins. He reads widely, subscribing to and devouring Ploughshares, The New England Review, AGNI, and The Kenyon Review. His current favorite poets include Richard Siken, Henri Cole, Ocean Vuong, and Jenny Molberg.