“You will love again, people say. Give it time. Me with time running out. Day after day of the everyday. What they call real life, made of eighth-inch gauge. Newness strutting around as if it were significant. Irony, neatness and rhyme pretending to be poetry. I want to go back to that time after Michiko's death when I cried every day among the trees. To the real. To the magnitude of pain, of being that much alive.” PeopleIfsWantGivingMadeRealRunningPainAliveTreeEverydaySignificantReal LifeIronyPretendingInchesCriedRhymeMagnitudeNewnessGaugesLove AgainNeatnessTime Running OutStrutting Book:The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 Source: The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992
“Being alive is so extraordinary I don’t know why people limit it to riches, pride, security—all of those things life is built on. People miss so much because they want money and comfort and pride, a house and a job to pay for the house. And they have to get a car. You can’t see anything from a car. It’s moving too fast. People take vacations. That’s their reward—the vacation. Why not the life?” PeopleKnowsWantJobsMovingLife IsHousePayAliveSecurityCarMissingPrideComfortLimitsBuiltRewardsExtraordinaryRichesWhy NotVacation Author:Jack Gilbert
“I like ornament at the right time, but I don't want a poem to be made out of decoration ... When I read the poems that matter to me, it stuns me how much the presence of the heart-in all its forms-is endlessly available there. To experience ourselves in an important way just knocks me out. It puzzles me why people have given that up for cleverness. Some of them are ingenious, more ingenious than I am, but so many of them aren't any good at being alive.” PeopleWayWantHeartMadeImportantMatterFormGivenAliveAvailablePuzzlesRight TimeClevernessOrnamentsIngeniousDecoration Author:Jack Gilbert
