Guernica / The Consequences

Guernica / The Consequences

 Poet Robert Hass has a bright face. Alert, keen, present in a room, he disarms with a wide grin, frequent hand gestures, and an occasional burst of high-pitched giggling. He looks directly, almost insistently, at whoever is speaking to him, and then waits a beat after they’ve finished, as though considering the full implications of what they’ve said. This inquisitiveness, or perhaps acquisitiveness, is belied by a slightly disheveled appearance: his hair somewhat mussed, his eyebrows in need of a trim. But his gaze contradicts any pretense of clutter.