The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992JOYCE'S MOTTO has had much fame but few apostles. Among them, there has been Jack Gilbert and his orthodoxy, a strictness that has required of this poet, now in the seventh decade of his severe life, the penalty of his having had almost no fame at all. In an era that puts before the artist so many sleek and official temptations, keeping unflinchingly to a code of "silence, exile, and cunning" could not have been managed without a show of strictness well beyond the reach of the theater of the coy. The "far, stubborn, disastrous" course of Jack Gilbert's resolute journey--not one that would promise in time to bring him home to the consolations of Penelope and the comforts of Ithaca but one that would instead take him ever outward to the impossible blankness of the desert--could never have been achieved in the society of others. What has kept this great poet brave has been the difficult company of his poems--and now we have, in Gilbert's third and most silent book, what may be, what must be, the bravest of these imperial accomplishments. |
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... MIL( OF PARADISE GIFT HO RSES HARD W RED THE WH TE HEART OF GOD MICHIKO NOGAMI (1946—1982) THE CONTAINER FOR THE THING CONTAINED MOMENT OF GRACE THE LORD SITS WITH ME OUT IN FRONT BETWEEN AGING AND OLD THE HISTORY OF MEN OLDER WOMEN.
... MIL( OF PARADISE GIFT HO RSES HARD W RED THE WH TE HEART OF GOD MICHIKO NOGAMI (1946—1982) THE CONTAINER FOR THE THING CONTAINED MOMENT OF GRACE THE LORD SITS WITH ME OUT IN FRONT BETWEEN AGING AND OLD THE HISTORY OF MEN OLDER WOMEN.
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... WOMEN EXCEEDING INFIDELITY HIGHLIGHTS AND INTERSTICES PEACHES MUSIC IS THE MEMORY OF WHAT NEVER HAPPENED ALTERNATIVES MICHIKO DEAD GHOSTS HARM AND BOON IN THE MEETINGS MAN AT A WINDOW SONATINA FORAGING FOR WOOD ON THE MOUNTAIN IN UMBRIA ...
... WOMEN EXCEEDING INFIDELITY HIGHLIGHTS AND INTERSTICES PEACHES MUSIC IS THE MEMORY OF WHAT NEVER HAPPENED ALTERNATIVES MICHIKO DEAD GHOSTS HARM AND BOON IN THE MEETINGS MAN AT A WINDOW SONATINA FORAGING FOR WOOD ON THE MOUNTAIN IN UMBRIA ...
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... women. He takes out everything and puts in the fish. “No one knows where you are. People forget you. You are vain and stubborn.” The man slices tomatoes and lemons. Takes out the fish and scrambles eggs. I am not stubborn, he thinks ...
... women. He takes out everything and puts in the fish. “No one knows where you are. People forget you. You are vain and stubborn.” The man slices tomatoes and lemons. Takes out the fish and scrambles eggs. I am not stubborn, he thinks ...
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... was lots of free beer. He runs in and out of buildings looking for a toilet. “My Lord,” the tall woman says, “that fellow down there surely does love architecture.” MEASURING THE TYGER Barrels of chains. Sides of beef stacked LOVERS.
... was lots of free beer. He runs in and out of buildings looking for a toilet. “My Lord,” the tall woman says, “that fellow down there surely does love architecture.” MEASURING THE TYGER Barrels of chains. Sides of beef stacked LOVERS.
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ARNAUT DANIEL INVENTING barley beautiful birds body CAPABLANCA cold comes crying dances DANIEL INVENTING LOVE dark DAY SONGS Denmark DON GIOVANNI door DREAMS OF ARNAUT dress empty Eurydice everything eyes feet finally flesh floor flowers FORAGING FOR WOOD girls going-home train hair happy HARM AND BOON hear heart horses HOT NIGHTS IMAGINE THE GODS inside JACK GILBERT kerosene lamps look LORD SITS lost LOVE THE DEAD marriage Mediterranean light MICHIKO DEAD MICHIKO NOGAMI moon morning mountain naked nakedness NIGHT SONGS olive trees Orpheus Paradise Passion Perugia Pittsburgh PROSPERO DREAMS raccoon rain RELATIVE PITCH remember ripe river ruined searching shutters silence singing smell snow spirit STEEL GUITARS stone street stubborn summer sunlight sweet teak tell THEORETICAL LIVES things THINKING ABOUT ECSTASY trees trying UMBRIA upstairs valley voice walking watch weeds WHITE HEART wild window winter woman women