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About Poet Laureate

Lisel Mueller's Poems

IN PASSING

by Lisel Mueller

How swiftly the strained honey
of afternoon light
flows into darkness

 

and the closed bud shrugs off
its special mystery
in order to break into blossom:

 

as if what exists, exists
so that it can be lost
and become precious

 

 

 

The poems reprinted here appear in Lisel Mueller's Alive Together (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996). Copyright © 1996 by Lisel Mueller. Used with the author's permission.