“ Suddenly this defeat.This rain.The blues gone grayAnd the browns gone grayAnd yellowA terrible amber.In the cold streetsYour warm body.In whatever roomYour warm body.Among all the peopleYour absenceTh… Jack Gilbert
“ To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboatcomes slowly out and then goes back is truly worthall the years of sorrow that are to come. Jack Gilbert
“ How astonishing it is that language can almost mean, and frightening that it does not quite. Jack Gilbert
“ I had lived all of my youthful dreams, but I couldn't think of many adult ones. I finally realized that we don't have many dreams for adults because, historically, people have always died much younger… Jack Gilbert
“ DuendeI can't remember her name.It's not as though I've been in bedwith that many women.The truth is I can't even rememberher face. I kind of know how strongher thighs were, and her beauty.But what I… Jack Gilbert
“ Imagine if suffering were real.Imagine if those old people were afraid of death.What if the midget or the girl with one armreally felt pain? Imagine how impossible it would beto live if some people we… Jack Gilbert
“ Horses at Midnight Without a Moon Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed downbut the angel flies up again taking us… Jack Gilbert
“ The Poles rode out from Warsaw against the German Tanks on horses. Rode knowing, in sunlight, with sabers, A magnitude of beauty that allows me no peace. And yet this poem would lessen that day. Quest… Jack Gilbert
“ Horses At Midnight Without A MoonOur heart wanders lost in the dark woods.Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.But there's music in us. Hope is pushed downbut the angel flies up again taking us w… Jack Gilbert
“ Poem For LauraNow come the bright prophets across my life. The solemn fl esh, the miracles, and the pain. Across the simple meadows of my heart,splendidly you come promising sorrow.And knowing, I bles… Jack Gilbert
“ We are surrounded by the absurd excess of the universe. By meaningless bulk, vastness without size, power without consequence. The stubborn iteration that is present without being felt. Nothing the sp… Jack Gilbert
“ We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must havethe stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthlessfurnace of this world. To make injustice the onlymea… Jack Gilbert
“ We think the fire eats the wood. We are wrong. The wood reaches out to the flame. The fire licks at what the wood harbors, and the wood gives itself away to that intimacy, the manner in which we and t… Jack Gilbert
“ Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods. Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt. But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed down but the angel flies up again taking us with her. Jack Gilbert
“ I would say Pittsburgh softly each time before throwing him up. Whisper Pittsburgh with my mouth against the tiny ear and throw him higher. Pittsburgh and happiness high up. The only way to leave even… Jack Gilbert
“ When I was walking in the mountains with the Japanese man and began to hear the water, he said, 'What is the sound of the waterfall?' 'Silence,' he finally told me. Jack Gilbert
“ We are a singularity that makes music out of noise because we must hurry. We make a harvest of loneliness and desiring in the blank wasteland of the cosmos. Jack Gilbert
“ It is convenient for the old men to blame Eve. To insist we are damned because a country girl talked to the snake one afternoon long ago. Children must starve in Somalia for that, and old women be aba… Jack Gilbert
“ Michiko Nogami (1946—1982)” Is she more apparent because she is notanymore forever? Is her whiteness more whitebecause she was the color of pale honey?A smokestack making the sky more visible.A dead w… Jack Gilbert
