Crossroads (by Louise Glück)

Crossroads (by Louise Glück)

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