23.11.10

Found Poem: Jack Gilbert Refuses Heaven


Jack Gilbert Refuses Heaven

—With text taken from “Eight Takes” by Dan Chiasson


A poet of reckless charism
and aftermaths,
a catch-as-catch can Castiglione
consigned by the wayward
and imagined. He’s addled
talk after a wild night out,
strung out sprezzatura, as he bobs
and weaves among the memories
of old loves in old,
European cities. Like the Beats,
Gilbert is a classic backdrop,
stage-sets. He’s panoramically rural,
he’s intimate piazza and stone
fountain. He’s an allegoric ring
falling from a woman’s hand.
As so we meet Gilbert the cruiser,
scripture lost in the swagger
of a woman wiping barbeque sauce
across her breasts as he
gets lost in the energy flexes.

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