Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Paris in the Spring

Jack Gilbert, now in his eighties, writes verse that reveals his fierce ideals and provides us with a beautiful, sometimes stark view of what a life devoted to poetry has meant for him. "How Much of That Is Left in Me?" appears in his recent book, REFUSING HEAVEN, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Other poems from that book are featured in today's episode of the Knopf Poetry Podcast and in the downloadable broadside, designed by Abby Weintraub, using a photograph by Dale Satorsky.




How Much of That Is Left in Me?

Yearning inside the rejoicing. The heart's famine
within the spirit's joy. Waking up happy
and practicing discontent. Seeing the poverty
in the perfection, but still hungering
for its strictness. Thinking of
a Greek farmer in the orchard,
the white almond blossoms falling and falling
on him as he struggled with his wooden plow.
I remember the stark and precious winters in Paris.
Just after the war when everyone was poor and cold.
I walked hungry through the vacant streets at night
with the snow falling wordlessly in the dark like petals
on the last of the nineteenth century. Substantiality
seemed so near in the grand empty boulevards,
while the famous bronze bells told of time.
Stripping everything down until being was visible.
The ancient buildings and the Seine,
small stone bridges and regal fountains flourishing
in the emptiness. What fine provender in the want.
What freshness in me amid the loneliness.

Knopfpoetry.com

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