One Body

by Gibson, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780807132401
• ISBN10: 0807132403
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

One Body is Margaret Gibson's most intimate collection of poems to date. Written as if to honor the injunction "Work to simplify the heart," the poems are direct, empathetic, and tender in their study of life and death. The thirteen poems of the opening sequence, as well as other poems throughout, look steadily at life and death until they are transparently "one body." "Closer to death," she writes, "I want great faith and great doubt." Whether the focus is personal or social, Gibson has written the poems in this stunning collection "because I want to see / how the body goes still / how the mind, how the lens of the eye / magnifies to an emptiness / so deep, so flared wide / there is everywhere field and the Source / of field." One Body is the work of a richly contemplative poet.

Table of Contents

Washing the Pitcher	p. 3
The Waiting	p. 5
Meaning God, She Said Light	p. 6
A Leaf of Basil	p. 7
What Cannot Be Kissed Away	p. 9
Last Words	p. 10
Comfort	p. 11
Psalm	p. 13
Dark Night I	p. 14
Dark Night II	p. 15
Dark Night III	p. 16
Iris	p. 17
Ashes	p. 19
Newspaper Photograph	p. 23
The Gaze	p. 25
In January, the Morning after the State of the Union Address, I Go Outside to Stand in Snowfall and Cold Air	p. 27
Fuel	p. 29
Moment	p. 30
Respect	p. 31
One Body	p. 37
Lilies of the Valley	p. 41
Elegy for My Father Gifts	p. 42
Word over All, Beautiful as the Sky	p. 43
Body of Light	p. 45
Listening to Elgar's Sospiri	p. 46
My Mother's Girdle	p. 47
Yonder	p. 50
Ask Me Now	p. 51
Cooking Supper While My Sister Dies	p. 54
Poetry Is the Spirit of the Dead, Watching	p. 57
East Window, Moon	p. 65
Trying to Pray	p. 66
What Is the Fundamental Uncreated Essence of All Things?	p. 67
Spool of Red Thread	p. 68
Still Life, with Binoculars	p. 69
Iris	p. 70
On Being Asked If the Anklet I'm Wearing Is an Old Charm Bracelet of Mine	p. 71
Air and Earth	p. 72
Transparent	p. 74
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