A micro-anthology of Jack Gilbert poems. 'The best is often when nothing is happening.'

1. The rooster, 'They killed the rooster because he could feeling nothing/for the six frumpy hens.'

2. Tear it down, 'Love is not/enough. We die and are put into the earth forever./We should insist while there is still time.'

3. Alone, 'It is strange that she has returned/as somebody's dalmatian.'

4. Horses at midnight without a moon, 'We know the horses are there in the dark/meadow because we can smell them.'

5. Married, 'I came back from the funeral and crawled/around the apartment crying hard,/searching for my wife’s hair.'

6. What is there to say, 'there is this/stubborn provincial/singing in me/oh each time.'

7. Highlights and Interstices, 'the best is often when nothing is happening.'

8. Finding Eurydice. Is it possible to quote only one line from this poem?

I ma reading Transgressions, Selected Poems (US link) and finding more and more to enjoy about Jack Gilbert.