“We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” — Louise Glück

“We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” — Louise Glück

It’s her birthday today. Louise Glück’s poetry sometimes hurts, touching wounds or fears and dreads so deep you don’t want to acknowledge they even exist. It feels like these things might overwhelm you if you give them any space. Glück knew these things existed, and she looked at them. She dealt with what haunted her. She dealt with it by putting it into words. Her sister died before she was born, and Louise was haunted by this ghost sister, a p…