Louise Glück is an American poet from the 20th century. Glück's poems often deal with sensitive subjects such as relationships, loneliness, family, and even divorce. " You didn't want my heart; / you were on my way to my body." Marina is a poem about a failed relationship where the speaker was left by someone who only really wanted the speaker for their body. Dealing with the emotional trauma that comes with a breakup the speaker tells the ex-lover what they are really going through in this time. This poem really delves into what it's like to be in this type of relationship then be suddenly let go by the person who is supposed to actually love you. "When we made love / the cat went to another bedroom." We get a small glimpse into what the love that the speaker felt, how it felt when being as close to someone as humanly possible. "The abandoned cat / wails in the empty bedchamber." At the end of the poem we find that now that the speaker is in this turmoil, the feelings only felt by being left by someone you loved.

Click here for a reading of the poem.

Marina 

My heart was a stone wall

you broke through anyway.

My heart was an island garden

about to be trampled by you.

You didn’t want my heart;

you were on your way to my body.

None of it was my fault.

You were everything to me,

not just beauty or money.

When we made love
the cat went to another bedroom.

Then you forgot me.

Not for no reason

did the stones

tremble around the walled garden:

there’s nothing there now

except the wilderness people call nature,

the chaos that takes over.

You took me to a place
where I could see the evil in my character

and left me there.