I had already learned so much from Rainer Diana Hamilton’s poetry before reading This Reasonable Habit. Co-written with Violet Spurlock and published February 2026 by Spunk Editions, the long poem begins with a bicoastal phone call and unfolds at an imaginary summit where 26 characters—A through Z—convene, over the course of three days, to answer questions like: “Is ‘shyness’ a moral failing?”, “What makes good sex?”, “What constitutes a good reason to dislike someone?” Ever searching for guidance on living, relating, and loving, I finished the book with a rush of gratitude for the sheer abundance of thinking it opened up, meaning I wept. This investigative impulse is seen across Hamilton’s work, and, as they say in our conversation, the idea is to “find the form that can represent a thought you otherwise couldn’t represent.” Near the end of This Reasonable Habit, Violet says over the phone to Rainer: “Haven’t I loved you in loving to wonder alongside you about the nature of that love?” Friendship is a form, too—Hamilton’s work reminds us of this fact.