Poem: After the Elms

 

Exploring the Amazon - National Geographic, 1979

Based on the poem Elms by Louise Glück

 

All day I tried to disguise,

need into desire!

In the light, where our girlhood

watched into womanhood,

how steadily we become

landscape artists

illusion of worship

created by invasive growth.

In our bare faced bloom, our fragrance

confirmed, allowed.

But an elm,

I fruit of no value.

I will make no forms, but twisted forms.