Louise Erdrich, an incredible poet

This extract is from her poem  'Advice to myself.'

It is a wonderful poem and one I keep reading right now because it seems to advise me and my state of mind.

Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.

Small Stone : 12

three envelopes with locks of baby hair weigh nothing

yet the contents shine gold, copper and dark bronze

Naming a child

Each name was like a rabbit hidden in a burrow, we had to coax it out with lettuce leaves.

Small Stone : 11

the dog found the basket of eggs by the back door and ate them all; the scattered shells make the child seek for a dinosaur that must have hatched

small stone : 10

The mist at six am shudders into daylight revealing the church spire pointed in faint reproach.

Small Stone : 9

all the male eyes are warm and brown and the females stare out of sharpness, blue

I wish it was summer and I was playing badminton like this ...