I might have mentioned that I’ve been reading Sarah Moss’s memoir ‘My Good Bright Wolf’ – it’s an astonishing book, highly recommended, about Moss’s childhood, and how her eating disorder was created, interwoven with an interrogation of the books that she read, and the lessons that she learned. At the start of the book is May Swenson’s poem ‘Question’, which Moss describes as going through her head ‘like an incantation’. I found it very intriguing, and I think it could be about a lot of things which feel strangely familiar – the way that we so often ignore the messages from our bodies, for example. Swenson, who died in 1989, was considered by Harold Bloom to be ‘one of the most important poets of the Twentieth century’. I shall certainly be looking out some more of her work.

See what you think, and let me know if it resonates with you. I’d be intrigued to know.

Question by May Swenson

Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen

Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt

Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead

How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye

With cloud for shift
how will I hide?