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State of the Arts Blog
Marianne Combs

Eireann Lorsung’s “The Way to Really Love It”

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Éireann Lorsung's poetry reflects a love of craft; not just the craft of poetry, but her love of textiles, dressmaking, and paper. Lorsung's artistic talents are not limited to being a wordsmith; she also used to have her own line of clothing and now creates prints and drawings. Lorsung was born in Minneapolis and earned in MFA in writing and her BAs in English and Japanese from the University of Minnesota. You can find out more about Lorsung at her website, ohbara.com.

The Way to Really Love It

Touch the edge of salt pond with a finger. Maps

don't show the taste of water.

You can know

what cows eat by tang in butter, and here

what swims, what stays away

tells saltiness. If you wade

hip deep in these ponds, maybe

something will begin

or something will stop happening.

Places like this

are dying off. Between land & ocean,

you stop thinking of it and it's gone.

Sudden

lack of birds. Pitch pine. A bog quaking

to life, with life, you had better

listen to this disappearing land, you had better

be quick, keep it trimmed,

burning--

- "The Way to Really Love It" in music for landing planes by by Éireann Lorsung (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2007). Copyright © 2007 by Éireann Lorsung. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions.