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"Crater Lake"

By Louise GlückPosted Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, at 6:33 AM ET

Click here to listen to Louise Glück read this poem.


There was a war between good and evil.
We decided to call the body good.

That made death evil.
It turned the soul
against death completely.

Like a foot soldier wanting
to serve a great warrior, the soul
wanted to side with the body.

It turned against the dark,
against the forms of death
it recognized.

Where does the voice come from
that says suppose the war
is evil, that says

suppose the body did this to us,
made us afraid of love—

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Louise Glück's new book, A Village Life, will appear this September.
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