A Woman Under the Surface: Poems and Prose Poems

Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets

by Alicia Suskin Ostriker

From A Woman Under the Surface:
MOON AND EARTH

Of one substance, of one
Matter, they have cruelly
Broken apart. They never will touch

Each other again. The shining
Lovelier and younger
Turns away, a pitiful girl.

She is completely naked
And it hurts. The larger
Motherly one, breathlessly luminous

Emerald, and blue, and white
Traveling mists, suffers
Birth and death, birth

and death, and the shock
Of internal heat killed by external cold.
They are dancing through that blackness.

They press as if
To come closer.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.