Prism by Louise Glück

Someone told me today that I was too studious (ugh!) and then this poem came to mind and suddenly everything takes on a different meaning.

Prism
Louise Glück

The assignment was to fall in love.
The author was female.
The ego had to be called the soul.

The action took place in the body.
Stars represented everything else: dreams, the mind, etc.

The beloved was identified
with the self in a narcissistic projection.
The mind was a sub-plot. It went nattering on.

Time was experienced
less as narrative than ritual.
What was repeated had weight.

Certain endings were tragic, thus acceptable.
Everything else was failure.

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