Failing And Flying Poem by Jack Gilbert

Failing And Flying

Rating: 5.0


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
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM

Nice one.. always suit...19 Today also she is with me Armed with determination and relaxed with freedom She shall venture out But talk nothing about

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Savita Tyagi 25 July 2016

But but any thing worth doing is worth doing badly. Also any thing worth doing is worth giving the best shot. Falling is not failing just end of triumph........great poem with a smooth flow.

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Edward Kofi Louis 25 July 2016

Old enough to know better! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

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Asis Biswas 25 July 2016

good argument to eliminate the bad view on our beloved one , poet written real incidents that we everyone come across in our life.words are written in a fast mode. so readers do not get a escape route once starts reading the poem..

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Jack Gilbert

Jack Gilbert

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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