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Glukupikron by Gregory Orr

Glukupikron
Gregory Orr

to Sappho

Word you created
which we translate
bittersweet
thereby
reversing the terms
as if we thought pain
came first
and pleasure only later;
for you maybe joy
was initial,
to be followed
by harsh disappointment.

Yet in the word itself
the two fuse,
and in the condition
it refers to
they mingle,
indistinguishable,
not to be separated
by any force.

It was
your word for love.

MARGINALIA

Because I saw this somewhere and I can’t get it out of my head.

ABOUT GREGORY ORR

Gregory Orr was born in Albany, New York, in 1947, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He received a BA degree from Antioch College in 1969 and an MFA from Columbia University in 1972. Orr is the author of more than ten collections of poetry, including River Inside the River: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2013); How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2005); and The Caged Owl: New and Selected(more)

Read more poems by Gregory Orr • Find books by this poet on AmazonBookshopWebsiteOr view my library

ENDNOTES

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