Not Over It

By Heather McHugh b. 1948 Heather McHugh

In sympathy with Gaspara Stampa

By woman so touched, so pressed,

detachment being thought

achievable at all

is boggling in itself. Its being

thought achievable by love—but love

for only all (not someone’s single) sentience—

appears the precept of too cold

a form of flame. How much

of a hand in things

relinquishes the hold

of things-at-hand?

What kiss might such

a mind reclaim? A swirl of dust

in Buddhist schools, perhaps.

A view of several solar

systems from above.

Not love.

The thought

appeals as it appals:

Slow learners, we must spurn

the selving sensualities, to feel

for feelers of this kind,

unfasten passion’s burner

to identify what’s under it—

in short, must court

dispassion just

to be compassionate.

Heather McHugh, “Not Over It” from Shakespeare’s Sisters: Women Writers Bridge Five Centuries, published by the Folger Shakespeare Library. Copyright © 2012 by Heather McHugh. Reprinted by permission of Heather McHugh.

Source: Shakespeare’s Sisters: Women Writers Bridge Five Centuries (Folger Shakespeare Library, 2012)

Not Over It

Not Over It

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