---
author: Louise Glück
category: poetry
date: '2025-10-26'
description: a late poem addressing the body with tenderness at the end of a life, speaking of love, separation, and quiet gratitude.
external: https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poem/crossroads-gluck
finished: 2025
id: Crossroads
modified: 2026-06-05 15:07:57 GMT-04:00
posters: '[[library/posters/crossroads.png]]'
status: finished
subcategory:
  - love
  - metaphor
tags:
  - r/environment
title: Crossroads
year: 2009
authors: Louise Glück
created: '2025-10-26'
published: '2025-10-26'
pageLayout: default
slug: library/Crossroads
permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/library/Crossroads.md
generator:
  quartz: v4.6.0
  hostedProvider: Cloudflare
  baseUrl: aarnphm.xyz
full: https://aarnphm.xyz/llms-full.txt
---
<pre data-codeblock="poetry" class="poetry" data-language="fr">My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer
I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,
like what I remember of love when I was young—

love that was so often foolish in its objectives
but never in its choices, its intensities.
Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised—

My soul has been so fearful, so violent:
forgive its brutality.
As though it were that soul, my hand moves over you cautiously,

not wishing to give offense
but eager, finally, to achieve expression as substance:

it is not the earth I will miss,
it is you I will miss.</pre>