[New-Poetry] Re: Gilbert

[JforJames at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/30/2006 1:13:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
grahamd at ripon.edu writes:

I'll admit to a  fairly deep distaste for the Bardic Persona, which Gilbert 
appears to have in  spades.  (I heard him read in public once, and almost 
walked out--he  seemed so in love with his own work that there was little room for 
poor me to  join in.)

But that's apart from the poems themselves, really, which at  their best are 
powerful and, yes, stubbornly fierce in a most memorable way.  





I know Jack Gilbert pretty well. I think he really just didn't go out of  his
way to let a poetry career get in the way of living his life. He's  older
now and really can't push himself out front in the world of poetry.  But
I don't think, when he could, he ever wanted to. I think he was never  the 
kind 
of poet who got up in the morning thinking about things he had do  related 
to being a poet: getting published, getting a conference gig, getting  an
academic chair or award, etc. It isn't like that for him. He doesn't  drive
a car but he's traveled the world. He's never owned a house; the sum
of his possessions would fill a one-car garage or storage unit. One  of
my favorite 'Jackisms': "I only need to make enough money to afford  my
own life." Since that life was a fairly modest in terms of  creature comforts
and with no children to support, he worked (gave a reading, did a  conference,
taught a semester here or there) enough for his own upkeep and  little
back-up savings. I don't think he actively resisted the mythology that 
was created by his being absent from 'the scene' for years at a time, 
but he wasn't cultivating that 'reclusive persona' either. He was  just going 
off and living his life. 
 
When he came back into view and was invited to do a big reading, he'd  often 
agree. He enjoyed the limelight of a reading or an award...but he didn't  
live for it. 
I cannot recall a single occasion where he engaged in the least bit of 
self-promotion when it came to getting an award/reading. Doing no
self-promotion isn't the same as promoting the mystique of an  outsider
poet. He was just outside; but he would come in from the cold, so  to 
speak, happily, when circumstance and inclination coincided. 
 
I found it hard to hear that David Graham was off-put by Jack's  reading
style. Of course as a friend and a fan of his work, I'm far from  unbiased,
but I never saw him the way. Yes, he enjoys reading the poems he's written. 
He not one to be self-effacing when reading...but I never saw  any overt 
performance in his reading and I never saw his public readings  as haughty or 
narcissistic. But he did like to 'hold-forth' and to let people in the  
audience
know what he valued and stood for when it came to poetry. And it  wasn't 
a wide-ranging eclecticism or fashionable modes that he was in favor  of.
 
He could be very hard on the work of other poets. (Except for Linda  Gregg
who could do no wrong.) In workshop or critical environment  I've seen him
push people pretty hard. Especially if they weren't writing what he  thought
was 'serious poetry'. Light-hearted wordplayers and  post-modernist 
tricksters, 
in particular, were spared no disdain. Good poets who  were 'trying to do
something different for a change', got an eyebrow beating as  well. 
 
Anyway, I'm glad to see him picking up a few awards late in life.  Bloodaxe
is working on a Selected, I understand, so maybe his poems will find  some 
new readers in the UK and Ireland.
 
Finnegan
 

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