The Answer -- Jack Gilbert

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

The Answer
by Jack Gilbert

Is the clarity, the simplicity, an arriving
or an emptying out? If the heart persists
in waiting, does it begin to lessen?
If we are always good does God lose track
of us? When I wake at night, there is
something important there. Like the humming
of giant turbines in the high-ceilinged stations
in the slums. There is a silence in me,
absolute and inconvenient. I am haunted
by the day I walked through the Greek village
where everyone was asleep and somebody began
playing Chopin, slowly, faintly, inside
the upper floor of a plain white stone house.

Comments

[cest-laila.livejournal.com]

I needed this. thank you.

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

You are welcome

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And thanks to Mr. Gilbert.

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

Pleasure :)

[orchidsofdesire.livejournal.com]

Second this

[coqdorysme.livejournal.com]

I am imagining a specific piece though... I think for me that adds even more meaning to an already very excellent poem.

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

Which piece? I was first thinking 'Prelude in E minor, Op 28 no. 4' but then wanted to imagine 'Ballade 4 Op. 52'. Yes, the ballade, definitely, especially the introduction, and the coda. Ah... now, I'll go listen (so, thank you!).

[coqdorysme.livejournal.com]

I was imagining the first nocturne, in B flat minor, since for me I prefer a rather distant rendition of the notes instead of a very warm sound - as if everything were being viewed from a distance, coldly.

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

One of my favourites.