IN DEFENSE OF DELIGHT
A BRIEF FOR THE DEFENSE
by Jack Gilbert
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.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.
-Jack Gilbert
by Jack Gilbert
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.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.
-Jack Gilbert
Replies
we must risk delight...a meditation, perhaps a prayer.....so caught me.....will be pondering.......
many thanks, much love, may much delight come to you and visit you often
I enjoyed that journal so much. Thank you for sharing...
Nell in Georgia
Wow, the thoughts this poem invokes is mesmerizing. Gives thought to others who are going through so much also, but they still can be found at times singing and laughing. Do I make sense? Doesn\'t matter.
Oh, Im speechless...Im moved to my soul. Thank you ; ) amazing women here...
No one goes through life without suffering...this entry is so profound...yes, let the light shine. Thank you for posting....I must re-read this again...
AnnM
So glad to read \"we must have the stubborness...\" Hoorraayyy!! An affirmation for me....you know, aka Ms. Stubborn! Yes, that\'s it, for me, sheer stubborness to demand I find joy, LIFE, while on this planet....no matter how horrible parts of the journey are. No more feeling guilty, or wondering if others think my smile means I\'m \"over it\"! I am free to smile, free to laugh, free to LIVE! And just stubborn enough to do so!