Louise Gluck is one of my favorite poets. I don't think I've read anything by her that I haven't liked. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1993 for The Wild Iris, the collection which contains today's poem.
The Red Poppy
The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.
1 comment:
Very good.
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