1386: South | Jack Gilbert
"South"
Jack Gilbert
For Susan Crosby Lawrence Anderson
In the small towns along the river
nothing happens day after long day.
Summer weeks stalled forever,
and long marriages always the same.
Lives with only emergencies, births,
and fishing for excitement. Then a ship
comes out of the mist. Or comes around
the bend carefully one morning
in the rain, past the pines and shrubs.
Arrives on a hot fragrant night,
grandly, all lit up. Gone two days
later, leaving fury in its wake.
On this day in...
2011: "Becoming a Nun" by Erica Jong
2010: "The Curator" by Miller Williams
2009: "This Year's Valentine" by Philip Appleman
2008: "With a Green Scarf" by Marin Sorescu
I blindfolded the birds/with a scarf of clouds/and asked them to catch me.
Jack Gilbert
For Susan Crosby Lawrence Anderson
In the small towns along the river
nothing happens day after long day.
Summer weeks stalled forever,
and long marriages always the same.
Lives with only emergencies, births,
and fishing for excitement. Then a ship
comes out of the mist. Or comes around
the bend carefully one morning
in the rain, past the pines and shrubs.
Arrives on a hot fragrant night,
grandly, all lit up. Gone two days
later, leaving fury in its wake.
On this day in...
2011: "Becoming a Nun" by Erica Jong
2010: "The Curator" by Miller Williams
2009: "This Year's Valentine" by Philip Appleman
2008: "With a Green Scarf" by Marin Sorescu
I blindfolded the birds/with a scarf of clouds/and asked them to catch me.