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Poems 1962-2012 QUOTES

Poems 1962-2012 QUOTES

1 " Living things don't all require
light in the same degree. Some of us
make our own light: a silver leaf
like a path no one can use, a shallow
lake of silver in the darkness under the great maples.

But you know this already.
You and the others who think
you live for truth and, by extension, love
all that is cold. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

2 " They sat far apart
deliberately, to experience, daily,
the sweetness of seeing each other across
great distance. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

3 " Snowdrops

Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know
what despair is; then
winter should have meaning for you.

I did not expect to survive,
earth suppressing me. I didn’t expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
in the cold light
of earliest spring—

afraid, yes, but among you again
crying yes risk joy

in the raw wind of the new world. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

4 " Dear friend,
dear trembling partner, what
surprises you most in what you feel,
earth's radiance or your own delight?
For me, always
the delight is the surprise. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

5 " The soul is silent.
If it speaks at all
it speaks in dreams. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

6 " Aubade "

There was one summer
that returned many times over
there was one flower unfurling
taking many forms

Crimson of the monarda, pale gold of the late roses

There was one love
There was one love, there were many nights

Smell of the mock orange tree
Corridors of jasmine and lilies
Still the wind blew

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—

There was one love; he had many voices
There was one dawn; sometimes
we watched it together

I was here
I was here

There was one summer returning over and over
there was one dawn
I grew old watching "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

7 " In my dream, I built a funeral pyre.
For myself, you understand.
I thought I had suffered enough. I thought this was the end of my body: fire
seemed the right end for hunger;
they were the same thing. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

8 " I could live almost completely in imagination. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

9 " But for my sister, that's the condition of love.
She was my father's daughter:
the face of love, to her,
is the face turning away. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

10 " Your back is my favorite part of you,
the part furthest away from your mouth. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

11 " My childhood, closed to me forever, turned gold like an autumn garden, "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

12 " My soul
shattered with the strain
of trying to belong to earth- "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

13 " Because you were foolish enough to love one place,
now you are homeless, an orphan
in succession of shelters. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

14 " The soul is silent.
If it speaks at all
it speaks in dreams. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

15 " whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice…"
- "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

16 " Now the hero's dead. Like echoes, the women last longer;
they're all too tough for their own good. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

17 " There is no better. Only (for a short space) the night sky like a quarantine that sets you apart from your task. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

18 " I don’t need your praise
to survive. I was here first,
before you were here, before
you ever planted a garden. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

19 " When the dream ended the terror remained. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012

20 " What do we have really?
Sad tricks with ladders and shoes,
tricks with salt, impurely motivated recurring
attempts to build character. "

― Louise Glück , Poems 1962-2012