Crossroads (by Louise Glück)

Griffin Prize for Excellence In Poetry, The (2001 - 0)

Original Text

Louise Glück, A Village Life (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009). This poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2010 International Shortlist).

1My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer

2I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,

3like what I remember of love when I was young--

4love that was so often foolish in its objectives

5but never in its choices, its intensities

6Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised--

7My soul has been so fearful, so violent;

8forgive its brutality.

9As though it were that soul, my hand moves over you cautiously,

10not wishing to give offense

11but eager, finally, to achieve expression as substance:

12it is not the earth I will miss,

13it is you I will miss.

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011