Headwaters by Ellen Bryant Voigt
Headwaters
Ellen Bryant VoigtI made a large mistake I left my house I went into the world it was not
the most perilous hostile part but I couldn’t tell among the people therewho needed what no tracks in the snow no boot pointed toward me or away
no snow as in my dooryard only the many currents of self-doubt I clungto my own life raft I had room on it for only me you’re not surprised
it grew smaller and smaller or maybe I grew larger and heavierbut don’t you think I’m doing better in this regard I try to do better
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Headwaters by Ellen Bryant Voigt, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. (Available direct from W. W. Norton & Company • Also on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“A meticulously crafted new volume from the acclaimed American poet whom the Washington Post Book World called a “genius.”
Rash yet tender, chastened yet lush, Headwaters is a book of opposites, a book of wild abandon by one of the most formally exacting poets of our time. Animals populate its pages―owl, groundhog, fox, each with its own inimitable survival skills―and the poet who so meticulously observes their behaviors has accumulated a lifetime’s worth of skills herself: she too has survived. The power of these extraordinary poems lies in their recognition that all our experience is ultimately useless―that human beings are at every moment beginners, facing the earth as if for the first time. “Don’t you think I’m doing better,” asks the first poem. “You got sick you got well you got sick,” says the last.
Eschewing punctuation, forgoing every symmetry, the poems hurl themselves forward, driven by an urgent need to speak. Headwaters is a book of wisdom that refuses to be wise, a book of fresh beginnings by an American poet writing at the height of her powers.” (Source)
ABOUT ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT
Ellen Bryant Voigt grew up on her family’s farm in rural Virginia. She earned a BA from Converse College and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her many poetry collections include Headwaters (2013), Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976–2006, and Shadow of Heaven (2002). (Source)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: uncertainty • self • growth • Or browse the index
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