Meadowlands Quotes

“Little soul, little perpetually undressed one,
do now as I bid you, climb
the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree;
wait at the top, attentive, like
a sentry or look-out. He will be home soon;
it behooves you to be
generous. You have not been completely
perfect either; with your troublesome body
you have done things you shouldn’t
discuss in poems. Therefore
call out to him over the open water, over the bright water
with your dark song, with your grasping,
unnatural song—passionate,
like Marie Callas. Who
wouldn’t want you? Whose most demonic appetite
could you possibly fail to answer? Soon
he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime,
suntanned from his time away, wanting
his grilled chicken. Ah, you must greet him,
you must shake the boughs of the tree
to get his attention,
but carefully, carefully, lest
his beautiful face be marred
by too many falling needles.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“The night isn't dark; the world is dark.
Stay with me a little longer.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“When I was a child looking
at my parents' lives, you know
what I thought? I thought
heartbreaking. Now I think
heartbreaking, but also
insane. Also
very funny.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“We can all write about suffering
with our eyes closed. You should show people
more of yourself; show them your clandestine
passion for read meat.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Watching you

stare into space in the tidy
rows of the vegetable garden, ostensibly
working hard while actually
doing the worst job possible, I think

you are a small irritating purple thing
and I would like to see you walk off the face of the earth
because you are all that's wrong with my life
and I need you and I claim you.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“«We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory»
Louise Glück, Nostos, Meadowlands, Harper Collins, 1996”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“The point isn't whether or not
the guests are happy.

The point is whether or not
they're dead.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“the sea
no longer torments me; the self
I wished to be is the self I am.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“A beautiful morning; nothing
died in the night.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“So it came to light that the male and female
flew under different banners: whereas
the male believed that love
was what one felt in one’s heart
the female believed
love was what one did.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Sooner or later in a long
life together, every couple encounters
some emergency like this, some
drama which results
in harm. This
occurs for a reason: to test
love and to demand
fresh articulation of its complex terms.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Nothing
was exactly difficult because
routines develop, compensations
for perceived
absences and omissions.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“My thoughts are deep
and my memory long; why would I envy such freedom
when I have humanity? Those
with the smallest hearts have
the greatest freedom.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Look, a butterfly. Did you make a wish?

You don't wish on butterflies.

You do so. Did you make one?

Yes.

It doesn't count.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“As one expects of a lyric poet.
We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Is it
fortunate to encounter circumstances
so responsive to one's own will, to live
so many years
unquestioned, unthwarted? One
would have to believe oneself
entirely good or worthy. I
suppose in time either
one becomes a monster or
the beloved sees what one is.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“I believe
women like to see a man
still whole, still standing, but
about to go to pieces; such
disintegration reminds them
of passion.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“I never turned anyone into a pig.
Some people are pigs; I make them
look like pigs.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Tell me
how you live in hell,
what is required in hell,
for I would send
my beloved there. Not
of course forever:
I may want him
back sometime, not
permanently harmed but
severely chastened,
as he has not been, here
on the surface.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“You took me to a place
where I could see the evil in my character
and left me there.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“My heart was a stone wall
you broke through anyway.

My heart was an island garden
about to be trampled by you.

You didn't want my heart;
you were on your way to my body.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“We don't have a dog.
We have a hostile cat.

I think Sam's
intelligent; he
resents being a pet.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“But is waiting forever
always the answer? Nothing
is always the answer; the answer
depends on the story.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“The great king looking ahead
saw not fate but simply
dawn glittering over
the unknown island: as a king
he thought in the imperative--best
not to reconsider direction, best
to keep going forward
over the radiant water.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“A lady weeps at a dark window.
Must we say what it is? Can't we simply say
a personal matter?”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Anyway,
what is fate but a strategy for ignoring
history, with its moral
dilemmas, a way of regarding
the present, where decisions
are made, as the necessary
link between the past (images of the king
as a young prince) and the glorious future (images
of slave girls).”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“I have deep friendships.
I have friendships
with other recluses.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“I stopped liking artichokes when I stopped eating
butter.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“Someone should discuss
ethics with the cat as it
inquires into the limp bird:

in this house
we do not experience
will in this manner.

Tell that to the animal,
its teeth already
deep in the flesh of another animal.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands

“I wish we went on walks
like Steven and Kathy; then
we'd be happy. You can even see it
in the dog.”
― Louise Glück, Meadowlands