» Jack Gilbert http://saxifragepress.com Monthly Poetry/Fiction/Artist Features and OtherArtistic Endeavors Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:40:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 http://saxifragepress.com http://saxifragepress.com/wp-content/mbp-favicon/SaxifragePress200px.jpg Poem of the Week, Nov. 17-23 http://saxifragepress.com/2008/11/poem-of-the-week-nov-17-23/ http://saxifragepress.com/2008/11/poem-of-the-week-nov-17-23/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:52:14 +0000 http://travismossotti.com/?p=58           In Dispraise of Poetry

 

When 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 meant worse.

It appears the gift could not be refused.

 

                   ~Jack Gilbert

 

 

 

This poem is excerpted from Jack Gilbert’s Monolithos (Alfred P. Knopf, 1982), a book I love dearly.  Gilbert’s poem relies less on evocative imagery (other than a white elephant) and more on the precision and progression of logic and thought.  It’s not a direct equation he’s after (white elephant = poetry), but more of a beautiful unveiling. Despite its size, the poem has a haunting quality that keeps coming back—oh, burdensome poetry.

 

~T.M.

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