elizabeth's review
The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992
by Jack Gilbert
elizabeth's review
The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 by Jack Gilbert
elizabeth's review
rating:
bookshelves:
read-in-2008
recommended for: humans, humans growing old, humans experiencing grief/loss, humans in great swells of longing & love
Oh my goodness! What an extraordinary book of poems, a book I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without having in my life. Thanks to Britta for introducing me to this collection.
I like when people share a line or two in their reviews, but I just can't choose so here's a whole poem:
"The Lives of Famous Men"
Trying to scrape the burned soup from my only pan
with a spoon after midnight by oil lamp
because if I do not cook the mackerel
this hot night it will kill me tomorrow
in the vegetable stew. Which is twice
wasteful. Though it would be another way
of cutting down, I am thinking, as I go out to get
more water from the well and happen to look up
through the bright stars. Yes, yes, I say,
and go on pulling at the long rope.
I like when people share a line or two in their reviews, but I just can't choose so here's a whole poem:
"The Lives of Famous Men"
Trying to scrape the burned soup from my only pan
with a spoon after midnight by oil lamp
because if I do not cook the mackerel
this hot night it will kill me tomorrow
in the vegetable stew. Which is twice
wasteful. Though it would be another way
of cutting down, I am thinking, as I go out to get
more water from the well and happen to look up
through the bright stars. Yes, yes, I say,
and go on pulling at the long rope.
