What we’re about
He tries to tell the doctor: / "My heart springs open and I see / there is a woods inside. / The trees are full of birds / but they are unable to sing." / It's a good sign, the doctor says.
"My body begins to shine / brighter and brighter. / In the center of the light / there is a transparent woman / yelling, _Go back! Go back!_" / The doctor says that's promising.
...
"You don't understand. He was famous. / He was important. / Parker and Gillespie would still go over to the house / when they passed through town. / He invented that music with them. / Things mattered."
(The doctor does not say anything. / _Calm yourself_, something whispers / inside him. _We can go home now_.)
-- From "Ars Poetica," Jack Gilbert (Collected Poems)
