In Marrakesh, I wrangle the story of how I came to live in Morocco and what happened to us there. But I wander into subjects like Walt Whitman, Islam in contemporary culture, the condition of the poet, riding a bicycle around roundabouts in Marrakesh, accidents that change your life, paintings that take your breath away, building a life from intention and whim and what happens when your husband dies one afternoon.

I lived, with my family, in Marrakesh last year. While I was there, I wrote a piece about imagining Walt Whitman visiting the city. Of course this was impossible, since Whitman never made it to North Africa. But, I wish he had. And I wish it so much that I just go ahead and put him down in Marrakesh and see what happens. Along the way, there are encounters, imaginings, and well-- djinns, the little spirits that inhabit spaces we sometimes ignore.

Read Walt Whitman in Marrakesh here.