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23 de Enero 2014
Failing and Flying
by Jack Gilbert
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
Posted by sarita at 10:21 PM
7 de Enero 2014
I Missed Punk
I missed punk
because my record player was broken
because I was suddenly older
because I can stand only so much distraction
only so much excitement and elation
but mainly because my record player was broken
and none of my friends cared much about new music
(Back in the '60s the thought that I'd missed something
would depress me terribly
Now it's just one of those things that happen)
Who are we anyway
any of us
who care about new music or anything?
We are the ones who care about their own skins, certainly
about saving them
and not being totally crazy and alone, in pain
We will go through a lot of incidental pain
as long as it keeps us in company
even ridiculous company, as most company is
We certainly don't want to be alone
and this makes us ridiculous
What I want to be is virtuous and noticed
What good is virtue if no one notices?
You don't know it's virtuous unless someone says so
I missed Punk
but it brushed past me in the cultural bazaar
and seemed to drop a hint about virtue
being what I'd always thought:
a readiness to lose, to let go
because only in loss is one not ridiculous
(if anyone notices)
Never resist an idea
Never say no to a contradiction
They have come to help you
smash the ego
which always reconstitutes
(and if it doesn't, well
your worries are over)
Peter Schjeldahl
1979
Posted by sarita at 9:33 AM