"Yeah, me neither. I... never really got the chance to read much poetry, really, when I was alive? I read some stuff that was passed around on tumblr, I guess, and the stuff they go over in elementary and middle school. Oh! I like this one poem--Power by Audre Lorde--I don't know if it's actually any good if you read lots of poetry and know what a good poem looks like, but I liked it." 

"Sasha should read us poetry!"

 Audre Lorde, huh. 

"Some springs, apples bloom too soon.
The trees have grown here for a hundred years, and are still quick
to trust that the frost has finished. Some springs,
pink petals turn black. Those summers, the orchards are empty
and quiet. No reason for the bees to come.

Other summers, red apples beat hearty in the trees, golden apples
glow in sheer skin. Their weight breaks branches,
the ground rolls with apples, and you fall in fruit."

He puts particular emphasis on the last two lines.

"You could say, I have been foolish. You could say, I have been fooled.
You could say, Some years, there are apples."

"Gather. By Rose McLarney. — I have a lot of favorites but that one's near the top of the list." 

"It's beautiful."

You're beautiful.

“Wow. That’s—really good. You’re. Really good at reading? That probably sounds weird, but.” Her voice is genuine. “Maybe I’ll use eternity to get into poetry.”

"Me too! When you say the poetry, it actually makes sense to me."

...he's blushing now. He kind of wishes he wasn't but he totally is. 

"Thank you." 

"You should teach me about poetry."

“I could... Maybe... Come too? If that’s okay?” She sounds very unsure if she’s allowed to ask but also very hopeful; she’s trying very hard not to think about whether ‘teach me about poetry’ is intended to be a euphemism of some kind. 

"Oh, yeah, of course!" Lev says. "Afterlife poetry lessons for everyone Sasha likes."

"Afterlife poetry lessons sound great! And yes, Faye, you are definitely invited to them." 

Lev puts his head on Sasha's shoulder and entwines his fingers with Sasha's.

"I wonder if Janet has the things I wrote when I was alive."

"I wouldn't count on us being able to read them, but I'd be surprised if she didn't have them." He kisses the back of Lev's hand. 

Faye notices the holding-hands and the kiss but mostly she is thinking about how apparently she is a person that Sasha likes! Who is invited to afterlife poetry lessons! The Good Place: maybe actually pretty great! Maybe she should have figured this out immediately from the name but she spent the first day here having a panic attack and then learned that she's sharing the neighborhood with a dictator, so.

"We can always give it a try, it's faster to check than actually writing it all out and we did that test."

"Janet?"

"Hello!"

"Can you give us the stuff I wrote when I was alive?"

"Absolutely! Do you want to start with your dissertation, or your emails to your sister, or the love letters you wrote to your ex when you were drunk and never sent, or the Warrior Cats fanfiction you wrote when you were thirteen?"

"MY DISSERTATION," Lev says in a tone of panic. 

Poor Lev. "Just psychology papers, please." 

"Here you go!" 

Four books with neatly bound covers and titles like LEV'S WRITING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY 2016-2017.

Do the books have words in them or just bland semi-impressionist sketches?

They have words! And a table of contents! And an index!

1. Tracking Colisteners’ Knowledge States During Language Comprehension

2. People Make the Same Bayesian Judgment They Criticize in Others

3. Are Bigger Brains Smarter? Evidence From a Large-Scale Preregistered Study

4. Sudden Events Change Old Visual Objects Into New Ones: A Possible Role for Phasic Activation of Locus Coeruleus

5. Volume Estimation Through Mental Simulation

6. Self–Other Agreement in Personality Reports: A Meta-Analytic Comparison of Self- and Informant-Report Means

7. The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option

Wow!

Faye is pretty sure she’s not smart enough to understand any of that, though; she hands the book to Sasha. 

He definitely doesn't understand any of that but it's more a case of lack of familiarity than not being smart enough. If he tries to read it, are there at least words? 

There are totally words! That form coherent sentences and everything!

"So as long as I never want to say anything new, we're okay."