Jack Gilbert
Who is Jack Gilbert
Jack Gilbert (February 18, 1925 – November 13, 2012) was an American poet. Gilbert was acquainted with Jack Spicer and Allen Ginsberg, both prominent figureheads of the Beat Movement, but is not considered a Beat Poet; he described himself as a "serious romantic." Over his five-decade-long career, he published five full collections of poetry.
Early life and education
Born and raised in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood of East Liberty, he attended Peabody High School. Gilbert then worked as a door-to-door salesman, an exterminator, and a steelworker.
He was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh and graduated in 1954. During these college years he and his classmate Gerald Stern developed a serious interest in poetry and writing.
Gilb...
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Jack Gilbert Poems
- Summer At Blue Creek, North Carolina
There was no water at my grandfather's
when I was a kid and would go for it
with two zinc buckets. Down the path,
past the cow by the foundation where
...
- 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.
...
- Tear It Down
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.
...
- A Brief For The Defense
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
...
- Failing And Flying
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
...
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Jack Gilbert Quotes
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Comments about Jack Gilbert
- Lapenguin66: volume is jack versailles, who is oz in the past life????? and that gilbert is used to be a servant at the baskerville household, and alice is related to the bakserville's via her mother. also, that oz is b-rabbit
- Aliterarybot: our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun.
—jack gilbert, 'horses at midnight without a moon'
- Msarki: "the cucumbers of praxilla of sicyon" by jack gilbert
- Pswordwoman: jonathan majors at princeton last year reading a piece by his favorite poet, jack gilbert.
those were the days, i guess.
- Aliterarybot: our lives happen between
the memorable. i have lost two thousand habitual
breakfasts with michiko. what i miss most about
her is that commonplace i can no longer remember.
—jack gilbert, 'highlights and interstices'
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