Price—Mischa Willett

We’re looking forward to reading your poetry as part of our Rabbit Room Poetry Prism Contest—submissions are open through June 30! Our theme is “Word & World.” Find out all details and submit here.

By Mischa Willett

It wouldn’t even matter if I could sleep 
as in was capable 
since soon as I tuck in
my son calls from his bad
dream and I’m upstairs wiping his brow
and saying how it’s okay 
so I trudge back down and arrange
the pillow just right and my breath steadies 
till my daughter coughs and needs water
downstairs to get it creak back up and I tell 
her it’s okay and I flop downstairs again 
and find my bed after and in it the baby
upset by all this walking and creaking 
and I hear her and I pat her on the back 
and make wave sounds with my mouth 
telling her she’s okay and I don’t know if 
I am really I’m tired but I also feel guilty 
like I’ve won something huge, opulent 
and undeserved.

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Mischa Willett has written poems, translations, and essays for Books and Culture, Chronicle of Higher Education, First Things, Comment Magazine, Front Porch Republic, and other such venues. A specialist in Romantic-era aesthetics, he is Director of the new MFA program in Creative Writing at Whitworth University. In This Gift Card Has Already been Redeemed, Willett follows up two previous critically acclaimed poetry books with this new collection that negotiates biblical worldview with contemporary poetics.

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Send Us Your Poems!

We’re looking forward to reading your own poetry as part of our Rabbit Room Poetry Prism Contest—submissions are open through June 30! Our theme is “Word & World.” Find out all details and submit here.

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Go Deeper…

Mischa Willett is one of the featured poets in An Axe for the Frozen Sea, featuring conversations with poets about essential questions of art, creativity, faith, meaning, and the well-lived life. Check out this inspiring collection at the Rabbit Room Store!

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This poem is from Mischa Willett’s new book, This Gift Card Has Already Been Redeemed (Paraclete Press, 2026).

Photo by Hanna Balan on Unsplash