Poetics

[vianegativa]

Japonica

The trees are flowering
on the hill.
they are bearing
large solitary blossoms,
japonica,
as when you came to me
mistakenly
carrying such flowers
having snapped them
from the thin branches
The rain had stopped. Sunlight
motioned through the leaves
But death
also has its flower,
it is called
contagion, it is
red or white, the color
of japonica—
You stood there
your hands full of flowers
How could I not take them
since they were a gift?

by Louise Gluck

This was the first poem I read from Louise Gluck while I was wasting time in a Borders book store yesterday. It's from her book The House on Marshland, and in case it occurs to you to care, she is a Poet Laureate of the United States.

I found this poem very haunting and tinged with a remarkably beautiful sadness... I hadn't heard of Louise Gluck until I happened upon her book, but chance has been kind and I find myself enjoying her poems. Not shabby for $16.32 spent by pure chance while I was waiting to entertain friends.

Comments

[emgalston.livejournal.com]

don't u just love finding books that u had no intentions in buying, but really really enjoy