Persephone the Wanderer - Poets.org
by Louise Glück from Averno

In the first version, Persephone is taken from her mother and the goddess of the earth
punishes the earth—this is consistent with what we know of human behavior,
that human beings take profound satisfaction in doing harm, particularly
unconscious harm: we may call this negative creation.

As is well known, the return of the beloved does not correct the loss of the beloved: Persephone returns home stained with red juice like a character in Hawthorne—
I am not certain I will keep this word: is earth "home" to Persephone? Is she at home, conceivably, in the bed of the god? Is she at home nowhere? ..
..You are allowed to like no one, you know. The characters
are not people. They are aspects of a dilemma or conflict.

..

You must ask yourself:
where is it snowing?

White of forgetfulness,
of desecration—

It is snowing on earth; the cold wind says

Persephone is having sex in hell.
Unlike the rest of us, she doesn't know
what winter is, only that
she is what causes it.

..

The terrible reunions in store for her will take up the rest of her life.
When the passion for expiation expiate DHL snake 'sth to expiate' ~ to atone for is chronic, fierce, you do not choose the way you live. You do not live; you are not allowed to die.

..

White of forgetfulness,
white of safety—

They say there is a rift in the human soul which was not constructed to belong
entirely to life. Earth asks us to deny this rift, a threat disguised as suggestion— all that mattered was sth I cldn't remember
as we have seen in the tale of Persephone which should could be read as an argument between the mother and the lover—
the daughter is just meat. and the rift is in her? wh you see if you read this as a tug btw mother-god and lover-god? creator and demon?

When death confronts her, she has never seen the meadow without the daisies.
Suddenly she is no longer singing her maidenly songs about her mother's beauty and fecundity. Where the rift is, the break is.

My soul shattered no not shattered ~ tired, wearied with the strain of trying to belong to earth—

What will you do,
when it is your turn in the field with the god?
______________________________

ok. when it is my turn. what will I

would I rather hear about Ariadne? closes her eyes so as not to see the men who could only appear and disappear. I close my eyes and all the world drops dead, I open them up and all is born again, I think I made you up inside my hear.
or maybe Kore, can we call Persephone Kore? disappearance. she is who's not there.

so, this is not esp appealing. I dislike some of the words ~ cliched?, though maybe she is just unafraid to use the obvious words. and obvious line breaks? do the line breaks add anything? seems not, I like better deleting them. I do think this might benefit from being read within the book, I do like her work as book length sequences, the accruing of theme.