bloodteethandflame

This quote has been sitting in a folder on my computer for at least three or four years now.

I never knew where it was from, except that it was from a poem by American poet, Louise Glück:

“…from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant I was not loved.
It meant I loved.”

~~~~

Today, I found the whole poem.

The poem is titled

First Memory

Long ago, I was wounded. I lived
to revenge myself
against my father, not
for what he was–
for what I was: from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.

~~~

Context is everything.