[Poetry Friday] “These Things We Depend On, They Disappear”

Myra here.

Thank you to Soul Blossom Living for hosting this week.

Louise Glück: Poems 1962-2012 (Amazon | Book Depository)

Published by Farrar Straus and Giroux (2012)
ISBN: 0374126089 (ISBN13: 9780374126087) Literary Award: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry (2012). Bought my own copy of the book. Book photo taken by me.

Just like everyone else in the literary community, I have been scouring through this collection of poems by Louise Gluck the minute I heard her unbelievably-candid, before-7-am-no-coffee-yet, almost-stream-of-consciousness Nobel Prize interview a few weeks back. I was so happy to see that I actually own this tome of a book, just begging to be cracked open. From her interview, I thought I better start with Averno, rather than her very first publication, so that I don’t feel “contempt” for her as she said.

The first poem in Averno already caught my eye, and this is what I would like to share with you all today: The Night Migrations.

Given how so many people have lost countless of friends and loved ones this 2020, I thought this was a good poem to share. I immediately connected to her voice and practically all the poems in this collection. Her voice is raw and biting, it sidesteps my expectations on the flow of her poetic narrative – always so refreshingly unexpected and piercing and beautiful. There is attention to beauty here and quiet spaces and the outer world that reminds me of Mary Oliver, but more angsty and grief-stricken. I hope to share more of her poetry with you in the coming weeks.