Everything is change, he said, and everything is connected.Also everything returns, but what returns is notwhat went away— — Louise Glück, Winter Recipes from the Collective (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)

Everything is change, he said, and everything is connected.Also everything returns, but what returns is notwhat went away— — Louise Glück, Winter Recipes from the Collective (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)

death cannot harm memore than you have harmed me,my beloved life. —  Louise Glück, from “October,” Averno: Poems. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition February 6, 2007)

How cruel the earth, the willows shimmering,the birches bending and sighing.How cruel, how profoundly tender. – Louise Glück, from “Lament,” Poems 1962-2012. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (November 13, 2012)

Do you daresend me away as thoughyou were waiting for something better? There is no better. […] Only (softly, fiercely)the stars shining. Here,in the room, the bedroom.Saying I was brave, I resisted,I set myself on fire. —  Louise Glück, from “Stars,” The Seven Ages. (Ecco; Reprint edition March 26, 2002)  Originally published 2000.

In the other life, your despair just turns into silence. — Louise Glück, from “Olive Trees,” A Village Life: Poems. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux July 8, 2014)

We look at the world once, in childhood.The rest is memory ― Louise Glück, from “Nostos,” Poems 1962-2012. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux November 5, 2013) Originally January 1st 2012.

I was a winged obsessive, my moonlitfeathers were paper. I lived hardly at all among men and women; I spoke only to angels. How fortunate my days,how charged and meaningful the nights’ continuous silence and opacity. — Louise Glück, from “Ancient Text,” The Seven Ages. (Ecco; Reprint edition March 26, 2002) Originally published 2000.