A quiet poem of spiritual reassurance, Todd's "It Is Enough to Enter" was selected by editor Jack Miles to open The Norton Anthology of World Religions (2014) in his introductory essay, "How to Read This Book." The poem also appears in Miles's later adaptation of the essay in book form, Religion as We Know It: An Origin Story (Norton, 2019).
Click here to hear Todd read this poem.
It Is Enough to Enter
the templar
halls of museums, for
example, or
the chambers of churches,
and admire
no more than the beauty
there, or remember
the graveness of
stone, or
whatever. You don’t
have to do any
better. You don’t have to
understand
the liturgy or know history
to feel holy
in a gallery or presbytery.
It is enough
to have come just so far.
You need
not be opened any more
than does
a door, standing ajar.
"It Is Enough to Enter" opens Todd's second collection, Pitch (2012, W. W. Norton & Co), now available in paperback. Order it wherever you buy your books.