Several years ago I was wandering through a book store and found a book of poems by Jack Gilbert. I had never heard of him before and I was drawn to the cover of the book and the title. I opened it up and started reading the poems and was thoroughly engrossed. I bought that book that day and it remains one of my favorites.
Jack Gilbert was an American Poet (1925-2012) from Pittsburgh, PA. He is known for his simple lyricism and clarity of tone. The turns of phrase are elegant. His first book of poetry Views of Jeopardy was very successful winning him the Yale Younger Poets Prize and was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Despite these early achievements, he would not go on to produce copious amounts of collections of poems. He broke away from this acclaim by living on a Guggenheim Fellowship in Europe. He toured 15 countries as a lecturer of American Literature spending the greater amount of his time in England, Greece, and Denmark.
Gilbert maintained his writing career by being a frequent contributor to American Poetry Review, Genesis West, The Quarterly, Poetry, Ironwood, The Kenyon Review, and The New Yorker.
I only have one of Jack Gilbert's 9 books. It is very hard to find his work and you almost never find it in used stores because he is that good.
Refusing Heaven is a collection of poems that has held me through many very tough times in my life. There is a sadness throughout the book that I have been able to relate to, but not so sad that it is depressing. The work is real and truthful. This speaks to me.
Homesteading
It would be easy if the spirit
was reasonable, was old.
But there is a stubborn gladness.
Summer air idling in the elms.
Silence hunting in the towering
storms of heaven. Thirty-two
swans in a Kobenhavn dusk.
The swan bleeding to death
slowly in a Greek kitchen.
A man leaves the makeshift
restaurant plotting his improvidence.
Something voiceless flies lovely
over an empty landscape.
He wanders on the way
to whoever he will become.
Passion leaves us single and safe.
The other fervor leaves us
at risk, in love, and alone.
Married sometimes forever.
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