Labyrinthos
What’s the difference
between a maze and a labyrinth?
I can’t remember,
so I keep looking it up.
A maze has many possible paths,
not all leading to the center.
They say that some
are dead ends.
A labyrinth has only one path
that leads to the center.
They say you can’t
get lost in a labyrinth.
But long ago these words
meant the same thing:
a labyrinth was a maze.
There’s one inside your ear
with canals and chambers,
and a vestibule with a window
next to a spiral shell
curving in on itself
like an ammonite
fossil in a Cretan cave.
….
This poem is from the book Mother Minotaur by Sarah Ahrens (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/mother-minotaur-by-sarah-ahrens/
Sarah Ahrens holds degrees in English from Emory University (BA) and Cornell University (MA, PhD). She has taught literature and writing at Cornell University, Auburn Maximum Security Prison, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. Her creative nonfiction and academic essays have appeared in Longridge Review, Modern Loss, The Washington Post, Avidly (a Los Angeles Review of Books channel) and Romantic Circles. Her poetic memoir, Mother Minotaur, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (2026). www.sarahahrens.com
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