In Dispraise Of Poetry by Jack Gilbert
In Dispraise Of Poetry
Jack GilbertWhen the King of Siam disliked a courtier,
he gave him a beautiful white elephant.
The miracle beast deserved such ritual
that to care for him properly meant ruin.
Yet to care for him improperly was worse.
It appears the gift could not be refused.
MARGINALIA
Goodbye, February. This month has not been good for my writing, but I enjoyed you just the same.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert, published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
ABOUT JACK GILBERT
Jack Gilbert was born in Pittsburgh on February 18, 1925. He was educated in both Pittsburgh and San Francisco, where he later participated in Jack Spicer’s famous “Poetry as Magic” workshop at San Francisco State College in 1957. Gilbert’s first book, Views of Jeopardy (Yale University Press, 1962), won the Yale Younger Poets Series and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Soon after publishing his first book, Gilbert received a Guggenheim Fellowship and subsequently moved… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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