Susan Mitchell

Susan Mitchell is an American poet born in 1944. Her poetry, collected in volumes such as Rapture and Erotikon, is known for its lyrical exploration of desire, myth, and the sacred. Biography ↓More ↓

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Susan Mitchell

Homeless

I ASKED for sunlight and a long, long day To build my little home. Setting an altar where my heart might lay Fire ere the god should come. I built my walls with patient carefulness, Secure and small, nor knew A wild wind straying from the wilderness Had sought their shelter too. My heart woke up in storms, my shelter sweet In ruins fell apart. Once more I go by cruel ways to meet The ordeal of the heart.

Susan Mitchell

The Tryst

I COME to you, blind, hunted creeping things, I come your way ; Though I had chosen sun-sweet air and wings And the blue day. Now through the clinging darkness I must creep, Dim citizens, with you my tryst to keep. I've had my soaring time, my long, light day. Shall I complain If for a space I go a heavier way In bonds and pain ? The lords of life know neither high nor low, The heart of man by many a road must go.

The Roads of the Heart

The first poems in full

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The Roads of the Heart

I WALK within my heart and take The roads he led me dear and dim To where a fragile house I make Of broken memories of him.

Without, they build me marble halls, They call my comrades near and far. Oh heart, more dear the wavering walls Where all thy shattered treasures are.

Biography

Susan Mitchell is an American poet born in 1944. She has published three full-length collections: The Water Inside the Water (1983), Rapture (1992), and Erotikon (2000). Her poetry frequently engages with classical mythology, biblical stories, and philosophical questions to explore desire, the body, and the nature of the sacred. Mitchell's style is marked by lush, sensuous imagery, long flowing lines, and an intimate, meditative tone. Her work has been recognized with awards including the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Rapture. She is considered a notable contemporary voice in American lyric poetry.

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