2020 Nobel Prize

 

The Nobel Prize in Literature                           2020

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to Louise Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."

Finally, something to celebrate in 2020.  Louise Glück is a prolific poetess.  There is much to choose from her work.  But to celebrate her award I will post her poem the Flowering Plum from her book The House on Marshland.

Once we lived in a house with a plum tree.  It was so magnificent that the school across the street would bring classes of children to come close to see it.  The flowers didn't last, "blossoms afloat in the wind."

Flowering Plum

In spring from the black branches of the flowering plum tree

the woodthrush issues its routine

message of survival. Where does such happiness come from

as the neighbors' daughter reads into that singing,

and matches?  All afternoon she sits

in the partial shade of the plum tree, as the mild wind

floods her immaculate lap with blossoms, greenish white

and white, leaving no mark, unlike

the fruit that will inscribe

unraveling dark stains in heavier winds, in summer.