Underlying ConditionsIn America, George Packer wrote, the coronavirus has revealed a sick and unequal society incapable of self-government (June).I shall chew on this article for several days. The taste is bitter. However, it should be swallowed and digested; hopefully its nutrients will be absorbed.Ian McHughMattapoisett, Mass.As I read this excellent article, I was struck by the clarity of the writer’s vision.

Illustration by Arsh Raziuddin; Fox Searchlight Pictures; GettyThe child and the writer are born at the same moment, to the same mother, each to his separate destiny. The child’s is to see everything, feel everything, be everything, and live in the scraps and sparks of language by which he understands everything; the writer’s is to wait, and hide, and grow, until the day when he steps in—pen in hand—to take possession.

Photo illustration by Miki LoweYusef Komunyakaa’s love for poetry began with his grandparents. They were dedicated churchgoers, and he’s said that “the Old Testament informed the cadences of their speech.” Komunyakaa spent his childhood at home in Louisiana, reading and rereading the Bible—and listening to jazz and blues on the wooden radio in his mother’s living room.