He takes her in his arms. He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you but he thinks this is a lie, so he says in the end you’re dead, nothing can hurt you which seems to him a more promising beginning, more true. — Louise Glück, from “A Myth of Devotion,” Averno:… Continue reading Louise Glück
There were many winters but I closed my eyes The cold air white with dissolved wings There was one garden when the snow melted Azure and white; I couldn’t tell my solitude from love— — Louise Glück, from “Aubade,” Poems 1962-2012 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition, November 13, 2012)
Language was filling my head, wild exhilaration alternated with profound despair— — Louise Glück, from “The Story of a Day,” Faithful and Virtuous Night: Poems (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014)
I have to tell you what I’ve learned, that I know now what happens to the dreamers. They don’t feel it when they change. One day they wake, they dress, they are old. — Louise Glück, from “Marathon,” The Triumph of Achilles. (Ecco Pr; First Edition edition, May 1987) Originally published 1985.
The extremes are easy. Only the middle is a puzzle. Midsummer — everything is possible. Meaning: never again will life end. — Louise Glück, from “Heaven And Earth,” Poems 1962-2012. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 5, 2013)
Hush, beloved. It doesn’t matter to me how many summers I live to return: this one summer we have entered eternity. — Louise Glück, from “The White Lilies,” The Wild Iris (Ecco, 1992)
Celestial Music I have a friend who still believes in heaven. Not a stupid person, yet with all she knows, she literally talks to god, she thinks someone listens in heaven. On earth, she’s unusually competent. Brave, too, able to face unpleasantness. We found a caterpillar dying in the dirt, greedy ants crawling over it.… Continue reading Louise Glück
