Saturday, October 6, 2012

Tear It Down by Jack Gilbert

Lizard eating a butterfly in my backyard.  I was following the butterfly around the yard with my camera to my eye and BAM! the lizard came out of nowhere and ate my butterfly.  Oh, what a metaphor for life.  :-)


Tear It Down
By Jack Gilbert


We find out the heart only by dismantling what
the heart knows. By redefining the morning,
we find a morning that comes just after darkness.
We can break through marriage into marriage.
By insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond
affection and wade mouth-deep into love.
We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.
But going back toward childhood will not help.
The village is not better than Pittsburgh.
Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh.
Rome is better than Rome in the same way the sound

of racoon tongues licking the inside walls
of the garbage tub is more than the stir
of them in the muck of the garbage. Love is not
enough. We die and are put into the earth forever.
We should insist while there is still time. We must
eat through the wildness of her sweet body already
in our bed to reach the body within the body.


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I love the poet, Linda Gilbert, and Jack is her ex-husband.  (This poem is sort of a mindfuck, but I love it.)  I was reading some of her poetry online and found this poem several years ago.  It caused quite a lot of discussion when I first posted it. 

Enjoy! 

~Marion, enjoying rare, cool October weather here in the swamp on opening weekend of hunting season.

3 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh, wow....that's kind of a "National Geographic" moment with your photo capture. Good job!!

Anonymous said...

I've never seen a lizard eating a butterfly, and that is a great shot, even if it is a wee bit sad.

Great poem.

erin said...

oh no, and this is like the poem, only jack gilbert can be more than jack gilbert. i love jack gilbert! marion! love!

We die and are put into the earth forever.
We should insist while there is still time. We must
eat through the wildness of her sweet body already
in our bed to reach the body within the body.


no one can do what jack gilbert does. and the line about racoons is one of my favorite lines from all of poetry.

and another poet, li-young lee. do you know him? the cleaving? one of the most important poems ever written. i'll send it to you))))

xo
erin