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“The Hermit Crab
Once I looked inside
the darkness
of a sheel folded like a pastry,
and there was a fancy face-
or almost a face-
it turned away
and frisked up its brawny forearms
so quickly
against the light
and my looking in
I scarcely had time to see it,
gleaming
under the pure white roof
of old calcium
When I set it down, it hurried
along the tideline
of the sea,
which was slashing along as usual,
shouting and hissing
toward the future,
turning its back
with every tide on the past,
leaving the shore littered
ever morning
with ornaments of death-
what a pearly rubble
from which to choose a house
like a white flower-
and what a rebellion
to leap into it
and hold on,
connecting everything,
the past to the future-
which is of course the miracle-
which is the only argument there is
against the sea.”
― New and Selected Poems, Volume One
Once I looked inside
the darkness
of a sheel folded like a pastry,
and there was a fancy face-
or almost a face-
it turned away
and frisked up its brawny forearms
so quickly
against the light
and my looking in
I scarcely had time to see it,
gleaming
under the pure white roof
of old calcium
When I set it down, it hurried
along the tideline
of the sea,
which was slashing along as usual,
shouting and hissing
toward the future,
turning its back
with every tide on the past,
leaving the shore littered
ever morning
with ornaments of death-
what a pearly rubble
from which to choose a house
like a white flower-
and what a rebellion
to leap into it
and hold on,
connecting everything,
the past to the future-
which is of course the miracle-
which is the only argument there is
against the sea.”
― New and Selected Poems, Volume One
“In a very real way, an author's creations are given over to others, the way a mother sends her children out into the larger world.”
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“No matter how you describe a protagonist, each reader has a personal vision of that character. Leave room for the reader's imagination.”
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“They say, "Write what you know." What do you know? Love, anger, despair, enmity, fear, empathy, lust, worry, trust & more. You know life.”
―
―
“The Moths
There's a kind of white moth, I don't know
what kind, that glimmers
by mid-May
in the forest, just
as the pink moccasin flowers
are rising.
If you notice anything,
it leads you to notice
more
and more.
And anyway
I was so full of energy.
I was always running around, looking
at this and that.
If I stopped
the pain
was unbearable.
If I stopped and thought, maybe
the world
can't be saved,
the pain
was unbearable.
Finally, I had noticed enough.
All around me in the forest
the white moths floated.
How long do they live, fluttering
in and out of the shadows?
You aren't much, I said
one day to my reflection
in a green pond,
and grinned.
The wings of the moths catch the sunlight
and burn
so brightly.
At night, sometimes,
they slip between the pink lobes
of the moccasin flowers and lie there until dawn,
motionless
in those dark halls of honey.”
― New and Selected Poems, Volume One
There's a kind of white moth, I don't know
what kind, that glimmers
by mid-May
in the forest, just
as the pink moccasin flowers
are rising.
If you notice anything,
it leads you to notice
more
and more.
And anyway
I was so full of energy.
I was always running around, looking
at this and that.
If I stopped
the pain
was unbearable.
If I stopped and thought, maybe
the world
can't be saved,
the pain
was unbearable.
Finally, I had noticed enough.
All around me in the forest
the white moths floated.
How long do they live, fluttering
in and out of the shadows?
You aren't much, I said
one day to my reflection
in a green pond,
and grinned.
The wings of the moths catch the sunlight
and burn
so brightly.
At night, sometimes,
they slip between the pink lobes
of the moccasin flowers and lie there until dawn,
motionless
in those dark halls of honey.”
― New and Selected Poems, Volume One
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Susan’s 2025 Year in Books
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