wotiwrote

Each morning I receive a copy of Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" in my inbox. It's a short read (you can also get it as a podcast) and comprises a poem followed by a few entries that relate the lives of writers and thinkers to the day in question. It's a pleasant way to start the day and more often than not throws up a quirky fact that's worth holding onto for a while. Today's almanac can be found within the weekly archives here.

Many of the poems Keillor includes leave no lasting impression on me but I found today's notable precisely because it made me want to read it again and because there was an emotional depth to it that seems lacking from a lot of contemporary poetry - where form often dominates at the expense of substance. Jack Gilbert's poem, 'Refusing Heaven', ends

I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of triumph.

As one of my favourite poems is Auden's 'Musee des Beaux Arts', this has a welcome echo of that but it also presents a nicely judged reappraisal of failure.

Labels: Auden, Garrison Keillor, Jack Gilbert