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The Open Grave

By Louise GluckPosted Thursday, Sept. 17, 1998, at 3:30 AM ET

To hear the poet read "The Open Grave," click here.

My mother made my need,
my father my conscience.
De mortius nil nisi bonum.

Therefore it will cost me
bitterly to lie,
to prostrate myself
at the edge of a grave.

I say to the earth
be kind to my mother,
now and later.
Save, with your coldness,
the beauty we all envied.

I became an old woman.
I welcomed the dark
I used so to fear.
De mortius nil nisi bonum.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author Louise Glück's forthcoming book of poems, Vita Nova, will be published in March 1999. Her collection of essays, Proofs & Theories, won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction.
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