Shards from Louise Gluck's Vita Nova

From "Lute Song:"

I made a harp of disaster
to perpetuate the beauty of my last love.
Yet my anguish, such as it is,
remains the struggle for form

and my dreams, if I speak openly,
less the wish to be remembered
than the wish to survive...

From "Lament:"

A terrible thing is happening--my love
is dying again, my love who has died already:
died and been mourned. And music continues,
music of separation: the trees
become instruments.

How cruel the earth...

...He is dying again,
and the world also. Dying the rest of my life...

From "Relic:"

I think sometimes
our consolations are the costliest thing.

From "Orfeo:"

...there is no music like this
without real grief.

Louise Gluck, Vita Nova, 1999. From SF